ALIEN ABDUCTIONS: PROJECT OPEN BOOK

TOMORROW'S
lUim
THE VOYAGES OF SPACESHIP EARTH

UFO FIELD
WINTER 1995

TAD I m-mtfiTI'Ti^i
^ GUIDE
TECHNOLOGIES!

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YOURIDEAS?v i
 onnmi EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE
PRESfDENT a CO O.: KATHY KEETON
SENIOR VP/EDITOR IN CHIEF: KEITH FERRELL
EXECUTIVE VP/GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO
MANAGING EDITOR' CAROLINE DARK
ART DIRECTOR: NICHOLAS E, TORELLO

30
First Word ReBuryingthe Past
By David Darling By Roben K J Killheffer
6 36
Communications Wtiose Ideas are
8 They Anyway?
Waves Linda Marsa
By Paul Kvinta 42
10 Battelle's Best
Boo>(s Guesses
By Janel Slites By Bennett Daviss
12 48
Mind Fiction: Olders
By Steve Nadis By Ursula K. LeGutn
14 75
Learning Fiction: CHROMO
By A. J. S. Rayl By Ernie Colon and
16 A J Gamble
Stars 78
By Steve Nadjs Fiction: Feigenbaum
18 Number
Wheels By Nancy Kress
by Jeffrey Zygmont 86
ao Interview:
Electronic Universe WhiHield Diffie
By Gregg Keizer By Thomas Bass
23 94
Continuum Fiction: Radio Waves
57 By Michael Swanwick
Omni's 105
Project Open Book Interview:
Reports of James Turrell
mass abduclions by Vicki Lindner
aliens, one 118
abductee's terrifying As the next millennium nears, Dmn; seeks answers to Games
tale, and tomorrow's questions: What new technologies By Scot Morris
Part 3 of Omni's will excite us? Who will own tlie riglnts to our intellectual 120
Field properties? Wfio will own the rights to our pasts? Ust Word
Investigator's Guide Cover art by Braldt Braids. Additional art credits page 85. By Christopher Kelley

OMNI {ISSN D149

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 FIRST lAJDRD
SUPPOSING SOMETHING DIFFERENT:
Reconciling science and the afterlife

By David Darling

death the end or a new be- Eastern and Western, stress the sciousness exists. No theory can
Isginning? Can we even make overarching importance of acting explain why the brain shouldn't
progress toward findirig an "selflessly" during life. They like work exactly as does, yet with-
it

answer? My belief is that we can, contemporary brain science, rec- out giving rise to the feeling we
but only if we are prepared to ognize that the self is ephemeral allhave of "what is like to be."
it

challenge two basic "facts" and insubstantial, that thiere is no And there is, believe, a very
1

about the world which have long personal soul, no hope of the in- simple reason for this. The brain
been held m the West to be in- dividual,as such, continuing in does notproduce consciousness
controvertible some cozy afterlife. at all, any more than a television
The first of these is that the self Yet a s not ost, mentioned
I set creates the programs that
is real. As Descartes that there were two appear on its screen, On the
Tb understand the put it; "I think, there- farts that we need to contrary, the brain filters and re-
soul, death, fore am," But what
I
a lenge if we are stricts consciousness, just as our

and tlie possibility if Descartes were progress in our senses limit the totality of experi-
of an after- wrong? Increasingly, rderstanding of the ence to which we might other-
llle. David Oarling neurologists are /stery ot death and wise have access.
believes we coming to the con- e afterlife. The sec- Again, this is no revolutionary
must look at the clusion that there is d "fact" that is new insight late though may be it

trulhswe no "Cartesian ob- taken for granted in in coming to the attention of sci-

IMe lor granted. server" in the brain, our culture is the as- ence. The idea that mind is a fun-
no central overseer sumption that con- damental, all-pervasive property
that can be identi- sciousness is pro- of the universe lies at the heart of
fied with "you" or "I." duced by the brain. mystical traditions stretching
Instead, what we According to back over 2,000 years. Nor is the
imagine and feel to mainstream opinion, direct experience of what, for
be the self stems from activity matter, over billions of years, or- want of a better term, we might
spread all over the cortex. Fur- ganized itself into more and more call "cosmic consciousness" re-
ther evidence for this is that ornate forms until, eventually, it stricted to meditating monks and
damage to part of the brain, achieved sufficient complexity to purveyors of New Age therapies.
through accident or disease, give rise to consciousness. It comes in flashes to many ordi-
often results in a permanent Working under this assumption, a nary folk. And it comes, most
change to the person we once growing number of scientists are telling, topeople during near-
believed ourselves to be. now busily rummaging around in death experiences at the very
It is a difficult pill to swallow. the brain trying to explain how time when brain activity has vir-
But swallow it we must if we are the trick of consciousness is tually ceased. If the brain really
to grow in our understanding of done. Researchers of the stature were responsible for conscious-
the significance of death. Self is of Francis Crick, Daniel Dennett, ness, why should consciousness
no more than an illusion conjured Gerald Edelman, and Roger Pen- be found to expand so dramati-
up, initially as a survival ploy rose have recently come forward cally at the point when the brain
during our species' evolution with a range of ingenious theo- has all but slopped working?
and, more recently, brought into ries. All purport to explain, in one Soon, perhaps, human inquiry
sharper relief by the way we are way or another, consciousness will broaden to allow a concerted

raised in our materialistic culture as an epiphenomenon of physi- exploration of the undiscovered

and society cal and chemical processes tak- land that lies beyond death. Then
To begin to change our atti- ing place in the brain and all we may arrive at a true Theory of
tude toward death, and to better fail utterly They fail not because Everything, one that satisfies the
appreciate our relationship to the their models are insufficiently ac- spirit as well as the intettect.DQ
universe, we need to stop han- curate or detailed, but because
kering for what can never be re- they are trying to do what is, from David Darling's most recent
alized
our personal immortality the outset, impossible. book, Soul Search (Vitlard
When the brain dies, so too does The truth is that no account of Books, March 1995), explores
the self, along with our personal- what goes on at the mechanistic the Intellectual, scientific, arid
ity and memories, It is no coinci- level ofthe brain can shed any philosophical implications of
dence that all major religions. light whatsoever on why con- defining the soul.
IHE ROSWtlL UFO CBASH. A PACKAGE. A SERIAL KILLER. A GOVERBMENT COVER-UP. A lyiVSTERIOUS WOMAN.
A MISSING MAN. A TERRIBLE SECRET. AND VOU NEED TO SHAVE. II CAN'T GET ANV WORSE...

THE

DIRECTIVE

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Editioq. 5
 TiTiTiT
connnnumicATiDms
READERS' WRITES;
Focusing on fiction, searching for tfie truth about UFOs,
OMNI PUBDCATlONS NIEFffJAT ONAL LTCW and tuning in to amateur radio
THE CORPORAT ON

First Things First a camera and binocu-

late at night with
I would like to say how happy I am to see lars, hoping for anything that might
Omni back in publication. Your thor- bring you one step closer to the truth.
ough and scholarly approach to certain The truth is out there you just have to
issues always keeps me eagerly await- know where to look,
ing the next issue, was pteased to see
I
Jonathan Craig
that your First Word column concerned Bowling Green. KY
UFO research. While agree with Mr. I AOL: Jon Vision
Benford that serious scientific study is
HalHalpnef VPD ti
needed m this field, I lake issue with his Hamming it Up
slalemeni that "no solid, physical, gen- I think the ham radio articie [Sounds,
erally agreed upon evidence" exists. April 1995] was well written. As a re-
Countless individuals, including high cently licensed ham, it is interesting to
ranking government and military officials, find out justwhat all you can do with
have gone on record claiming that hard radio, would encourage more people
I

evidence has been found and studied. to explore ham radio, and feel that they
But since officially everything is denied like myself, will become fascinated. It is

or debunked, it continues to remain the a truly enriching hobby that can be a

greatest modern mystery We may be tremendous help to fellow humans,
frustrated by the infighting among UFO Neil Wallers
researchers, but we can hardly blame Lavaca, AR
them for seeking substance in the AOL: BlueWonder
Roswells that are out there.
Brian Inthof As an amateur radio operator, found I

Kitchener, ON this column very enlightening, it did

(Sf F( K> &p liucccos Jane ftar 3!h Canada justice to the hobby and I'm glad you
shared with your readers an informa-
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
Fiction Flattery tiveview of amateur radio. If had any I

S. N. Dyer's "Resolve and Resistance," criticism would be about the informa-

it

[April 1995] was a marvelous blend of tion on repeaters. The articie did not
history and science fiction. Pure joy specifically point out that repeaters are
from start to finish. not unique to amateur radio, but are
Lynda Maroney found in police and business radio sys-
Port Huron, Ml tems. This is an insignificant point that
I, an avid repeater user, wanted to
Seek and Ye Shall Find bring up. It's great that the column cov-
"The Truth about Roswell" brought some ered this aspect of operation, because
strong thoughts to mind. It has become most people who've heard of amateur
routine for the government and the mil- radio know nothing about repeaters
itary to cover up events. This causes and the mobility of amateur communi-
conspiracies to sphng up. It they were cations. Good job!
more open and truthful, we might trust Adrian Pritchett
our government officials more, and not Gray, GAOO
expect a lie around every corner.
Joshua Boisvert Some writers break through the page,
Dauphin. PA making the reader feel their enthusi-
asm, share their experience and
The truth is out there, we just need to insight, learn the lessons they have
know where to look. Places like libraries to teach. Sharon McAuliffe was that
and newsrooms offer a certain degree sort of writer. We were proud of
of help, but those places are all censored. every word she published in Omni
What UFOIogists need is a forum where and elsewhere. We wish there had
anything can be said without fear. been more. Sharon died in late sum-
Omni Online is as close as we come to mer, 1995. We miss her. and will
that. What it all boils down to is you miss her, as will everyone who knew
can't get all your information from other her or read her work.
places. You have to search the skies
 lAJAVES
SUDDEN DEATH:
A new verdict for an ancient mystery

By Paul Kvinta

Two hundred and

millionyears ago, the
teeming plankton of the
fifty
geochemical approach to produce
some compelling evidence that
the die-off happened suddenly
caused the crisis?
the die-off could be linl<ed to the
heavy volcanic activity that was
Wang says

earth's oceans mysteriously
began to vanish, the die-off
quickly spread up the food chain:
Corals and clams disappeared,
then snails and starfish, followed
by varieties of squid and octo-
pus, and soon whole schools of
fish simply expired. Ultimately, as
the earth concluded the Permian
period and began the Triassic.
96 percent of alt marine species
became extinct.
"It was Ihe mother
tinctions." says geochemist Kun
These tiny Wang, noting that the dte-off
spheres may hold dwarfs all others in the planet's
the key to history, including the more cele-
which
Ihe events brated extinction of the dinosaurs
wiped out 65 million years ago, Paleontolo-
Wang's team located a sec-
lion of ancient rocK that once lay
at the bottom of Williston Lake in
northeastern British Columbia.
Inside the rock they found a rare
sample of well-preserved organic
carbon called kerogen, which
forms when plankton drifts to the
basin floor and becomes incor-
porated into sedimentary rock.
When Wang analyzed the kero-
gen with a mass spectrometer,
of all ex- he discovered an abrupt de-
crease in the number of cartx)n-13
atoms right at the border betv/een
the Permian and Triassic periods.
To make sense of the drop,
the researchers considered pho-
tosynthesis. Carbon is composed
occurring at roughly the same
time in Siberia, where constant
eruptions produced basalt out-
pourings about the size of
Aiasio, But a more likely sce-
nario, according to Wang, is that
a meteor smashed into Earth
and created a huge crater. All of
the displaced dust would have
blocked sunlight for several
weeks and severely limited pho-
tosynthesis. "It could have been
a meteor like the one that ]ust hit
Jupiter," Wang says. "If we had
that kind of impact, it would have
killed offa lot of life."
But Douglas Erwin, a paleon-
tologist at the Smithsonian Insti-
tution and an expert on the Per-

EIQBB
96 percent o( all
marine IHe al
Ihe bealnnlng ot
the Triassic era.
gists have long hypothesized
that the extinction of marine life
unfolded gradually and quietly
over several million years. But
Wang, a researcher
versity of Ottawa,
conventional wisdom.
at
bucking that
is
the Uni-
now
of

"It was a sudden change, not
a gradual change," he contends,
"At most it took a few thousand
years, but it could have been
instantaneous."
Scientists first discovered the
Permian-Triassic extinction
1950s, but since then, incomplete
fossil records have kept paleon-
tologists from determining the
abruptness or duration of the ex-
Wang, in contrast, used a
tinction.
sis,
two Isotopes: carbon-12 and
carbon-13. During photosynthe-
phyloplankton compete for
their preferred isotope, the car-
bon-12. But since competition for
this isotope IS typically intense,
the plants usually settle for some
carbon-13 as well. If the compe-
tition for the carbon-12 suddenly
thinned, the surviving phyto-
plankton would absorb only car-
bon-12 and pass on carbon-13
altogether Wang concludes that
in the the abrupt drop in the carbon-13
content of phyloplankton at the
Permian-Triassic boundary means
that a massive extinction took
place, and it happened quickly
The question now is, what
mian-Thassic extinction, maintains
that the die-off occurred over a
significant period of time, possi-
bly as long as three million years,
"We just don't have any direct
data on a time frame for the ex-
Erwin says.
tinction at this point,"
Wang, however, may be on
the verge of collecting just the
evidence he needs to prove this
theory He is currently investigat-
ing clay samples which may con-
spheres of microtektites,
tain tiny
orpieces of rock that would have
suddenly melted and splashed
into the clay Significantly for
Wang, it is a condition that could
only have been caused by me-
teor impact.DQ
 1

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 THE INTERACTIVE SCIENTIST:
A new look at some familiar faces
By Janet Stites

Theoretical physicist project after a former ing to Biewen, the CDs

Richard Feynman died Caltech doctoral stu- offer on-screen tutorials
ofcancer at the age of dent told them that the and projection capabil-
70 in 1988, but his voice lives on. university still had 150 ities that can be used
For thai matter, so do his jokes. tapes from the lecture to instruct an entire
Addison-Wesley Publishing series in its archives class Biewen explains
Company has recently released "We had always as- that while the CD-
a condensed version of The sumed thai the tapes ROIVls are expensive to
Feynman Lectures on Physics ti- had been destroyed," develop, the process
tled Six Easy Pieces: Essentials says Jack Repcheck, and final product are
of Physics Explained by Its Most a former Addison-Wes- fascinating.
Brilliant Teacher. But the tradition- ley editor, who is now The attributes of
ally conservative publishing an editor at Princeton mixing multimedia and
house didn't stop with the print University Press science are certainly
version. Accompanying the text "When we found that not lost on CD-ROM
is an audio version that allows was not the case, we publisher Voyager. The
the listener to get a sense of wanted to give people f>Jew York-based com-
what must have been like to be
it a taste of them." pany has published a
one of Feynman's young stu- The entertainer series of science discs
dents in the early Sixties. Feynman seems a good called "First Person," in

Taking tlieir From 1961 to 1963, Richard study for a project which users have the
cue Iron) ArisloUe Feynman taught the freshman combining science and the CD- opportunity to hear scientists
and Sir Philip physics course at California Insti- ROM industry. Roberi Biewen, "think out loud," Indeed, Marvin
Sidney, science tute of Technology Because of president of W, H. Freeman Pub- Minsky invites the user into his
publishers Feynman's reputation as a lishing advocates the use of CD- own living room and. using video
are finding new prankster and congenial show- ROM in science. "CD-ROM and and graphics, leads the student
ways to man, and because the "Genius," science make sense when you through the text of "The Society
both instruct and as he's become known, rarely are able to show something that of Mind." On his CD titled "On
delight. taught classes, the course has IS important to a concept or Evolution," Stephen Jay Gould
become a pari of idea," he says, helps the user hunt for a
physics folklore and Biewen, who is encouraging tosuch riddles as "Who v
IS a great source of his editors to look for books naturalist on board the E
pride for Caltech. To which would translate well to CD- and 'Why didn't Danwin use the
grve it even more
weight, the series cul- We are targeting books which we think
iinated in a three- can communicate better through
olume book The
Feynman Lectures on
the power of CD-ROM and moving objects.
Physics, which has ROM, says the company doesn't word 'evolution'?" Donald Nor-
become standard plan to simply repeat a book on man acts as a video host for his
reading for budding CD-ROM, but complement it, CD "Defending Human Attributes
physicists. "We're targeting books which we in the Age of the Machine."
The staff of think can communicate better Its clear from these CDs that
Addison- through the power of CD-ROM fans of science have much to
^ Wesley had and moving objects," he says, gain as publishers explore the
the inspi- "to do things that are impossible potential of the technology, as
on the static, printed page." science writers begin to write
Freeman's Stephen J. Hawk- with the medium in mind, and as
ings's A Bnel History of Time scientists move beyond the
CD-ROM is the company's first blackboards and the liooks and
consumer-oriented science disc. come out of the laboratories. DO
W- H. Freeman has already
published a number of CD-ROMs Please visit our Worfd Wide Web ^te
for its textbook division. Accord- at http://www.omnimag.com.
NEW empires/ f

POWiRS or
THE MIND >

T!M AT

5^ ^
Vi-
 nniruD
UTTER AMORALITY:
Can psychopaths feel emotions?
By Steve Nadis
Human conduct, though
often mystifying, is
never so perplexing as
in tiie case of the pure psy-
chopath a "cold-blooded" per-
son who instinctively resorts to
lying, cheating, stealing, and
perhaps murder without a trace
of remorse. How can one in
Most people are 100 people, by some esti-
affecied mates, turn out this way, inca-
when they view pable of experiencing normal
unpleasant emotions, incapable of feeling
scenes. But psy- love or compassion for oth-
chopaUis erstraits considered the
appear to react essence of humanity? The an-
tn the same swer may lie in faulty mental
way to a plate or wiring Numerous experi-
toed as la a ments show psychopaths
muitiateil body. have different physiological
responses to stimuli from nor-
mals and also employ differ-
ent mental processes while
performing simple tasks,
For more than 25 years,
Columbia
University of British
psychophysiologist Robert
Hare, author of Without Con-
science, has been probing
the minds of psychopaths. In
experiments in the Sixties, he
and his colleagues measured
the responses of psychopaths
and normal subjects prior to ad-
ministering mild electric shocks.
Unlike the normals, the psy-
chopaths showed no anticipatory
anxiety (measured in terms of
sweaty palms) before the
shocks. "They weren't apprehen-
sive at all," Hare says. "One
might infer that threats of punish-
ment have little effect some-
thing that seems to be true in the
realworld as well,"
Like many other research
psychologists. Sven Christianson
at the University of Stockholm
believes conventional emotional
constructs don't appiy to psy-
chopaths. In a study with Hare,
Adelle Forth of Carleton University
and others, Christianson showed
participants 15 color slides and
later tested their memory of the
scenes. The eighth slide appeared
in two versions: one showed a
woman riding a bicycle in front of
two cars; the other, the same
woman lying beside the bicycle
with blood oo2ing from her head,
the same two cars in the back-
ground. Normal subjects remem-
bered the emotional slide more
vividly and paid more attention
to more central rather than pe-
ripheral details. Psychopaths did
not show the same focus and so
didn't remember one slide better
ihan the other. "Since the psy-
chopath feels nothing for the
woman immersed in blood, he
doesn't find the image notewor-
thy," Christianson says.
Another study by Hare and his
group points to similar emotional
deficits. In a "lexical decision" task,
subjects were presented a string
of letters and asked were a
if it
word or not. Response times and
brain waves were measured.
Nonpsychopaths identified emo-
tionallycharged words like "can-
cer" or "rape" more quickly than
neutral words like "tree" or
"plate. " And iheir EEG responses
to the emotionalwords were larger
and more prolonged, "When you
see the letters c-a-n-c-e-r," says
Hare, "you say 'Yes, that's a word,'
but you also conjure up images,
make associations," Psychopaths
don't do that. Whether the word
is "paper" or 'murder," their re-
sponse times and EEG pat-
terns do not differ
At the Bronx VA Medical
Center, assistant chief of psy-
chiatry Joanne Intrator and
her colleagues used a SPECT
imaging machine to measure
blood flow in the brains of
both psychopath substance
abusers, nonpsychopath sub-
stance abusers, and control
subjects who were asked to
perform a word-identification
task.Psychopaths used a dif-
ferent strategy to Identify
emotional words compared to
the other groups, "This and
other studies suggest that
sychopaths process and
use language and emotion in
a very 'superficial' manner,"
says Hare, a collaborator.
Control subjects showed coordi-
nated activity In the frontal cor-
tex, temporal lobes, and
amygdala, areas thought to play
a role in the integration of thoughts
and "We seem to be
feelings,
targeting the same areas other
researchers think may be impor-
tant for the development of a
moral sense and conscience,"
Hare adds
Hare and his colleagues are
conducting MRI studies to deter-
mine whether the anomalies in
mental processing are due to un-
derlying structural or functional
problems. "New techniques from
cognitive neuroscience are
opening a window into what's
going on here," Hare says. "It
looks like there might be a neuro-
physiological basis for this cold-
blooded, predatory behavior that
has baffled us for so long,"00
 LEARmimB
STRIKING A NEURAL CHORD:
Musical links for scientists and mathematicians
By A, J. S, Rayl
I J% hen all is
III I I sung, kiddie pop
%m %^ from Barney's "I Love
You" lo old standards like "Twin-
kle, Twinkle, LiHIe Star" may be
brain food for the scientists
mathematicians of tomorrow. If.
thaiis, the preschool children lis-
tening sing along and take up
keyboard lessons.
According to a recently pub-
lished study from the University
Raus^ier of California-Irvine, preschoolers
advises parents who participate in keyboard
losing struction and group singing dra-
wttti their kids, matically enhance the intelli-
and invesi gence network required for high-
In piano lessons level math and science. Basically
or a musi- these musical activities appear
cal heytioanl. lo strengthen links between brain
neurons, building neural bridges
used for spatial reasoning, says
co-investigator, psychologist
Frances H. Rauscher, formerly of
the university's Center for Neuro-
biology of Learning and Memory
This and other studies now
underway emanated from earlier
work of co-investigator, physicist
Gordon L. Shaw, UC-lrvine, Shaw
and former graduate student.
Xiaodan Leng, created a neuronal
Music is a very powerful tool whicfi can
be used to ensure every child reaches
his or her potential
model of the cortex. This model
proposed thai musical activity and
higher cognitive functions share
inherent neural firing patterns
which are organized in a highly
structured, spatial-temporal
covering large cortical regions.
While neuroscienlists have yet
to really look at the brain on a
micro they can observe pat-
level,
terns. the only way now to
Still,
determine how certain activities
influence others within the brain
is to study the resulting behavior.
The preschooler study set out
to do just that. The study involved
33 youngsters enrolled at two
said and
and
in-
L.A. County preschools. Nine-
teen were provided with eight
months of weekly keyboard in-
struction and daily group singing
sessions; 14 did not receive any
musical training.
In the 30-minute, daily singing
sessions, the preschoolers chor-
tled a variety of songs, from new
hits to classic favorites. For the
keyboard instruction, Eric L Wright
of the Irvine Conservatory traded
in math and science.
in the traditional A-B-C method
piano teaching and developed a
series of mathematically oriented
keyboard exercises Numbers
were assigned to fingers the
code tfiumb being 1, index 2, and so
on as well as to the keys C-1,
D-2, and so on, "When you
at music, it truiy is a mathemati-
cal production; we wanted
the impact this mathematical ap-
proach would have," says Wright.
Rauscher then tested the chil-
dren's spatial reasoning with a
series of five tasks, including ob-
jectassembly and animal pegs
(assembling cardboard puzzle
of tomorrow
pieces into familiar objects) from
the Wechsler Preschool and Pri-
mary Scale of Intelligence Re-
vised Performance Subtest, and
"Absurdities" (verbal descrip-
tions of what is "wrong" or "silly"
about a given picture) from the
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.
The results: 17 of the 19 kids
who received music lessons in-
creased their spatial-temporal
IQs by a 46 percent mean.
Those children who received no
music lessons only improved by
a 6 percent mean, which is less
than expected by chance The
study further suggests, says
of Rauscher, that other tasks which
depend upon spatial-temporal
processes chess, geometry,
sculpture, and the computer
game Telris will probably also
be enhanced by music training.
And even if your child shows
look no signs of becoming the next
fulozart or Elvis Presley, the ge-
to see nius of an Albert Einstein or
Madame Curie may be hiding
behind those missed notes or
sour chords just waiting to burst
into equations, DO
Please visit our World Wide Web site
at hnp://www.om nimag.com.

ASTRONOMY BY NUMBERS;
Scientists digitize the sky to reveal
By Steve Nadis
J^% ny theory atlempting to
#i"^L explain the universe
m m must rely on a special
kind of inventory a comprehen-
sive survey of the celestial ob-
jects adorning the heavens, Just
as a storekeeper regularly re-
views and refines his inventory,
astronomers have begun to up-
date theirs, making new maps of
the sky in wavelengths ranging
from radio to x-ray. In
contrast to traditional
astronomical surveys,
which photograph the
entire sky in numer-
ous, overlapping seg-
ments, most of the
new surveys either in
progress or planned
will be digitized: Rather
Storing astronom-
ical data
on pholograptiic
plales litie
these may soon
be obsolete,
as astronomers
go iligital.
than just taking snapshots with
cameras, astronomers now em-
ploy advanced detectors that
measure the amount of light
reaching us from all parts of the
sky and then combine that infor-
mation arithmetically to produce
detailed images of the stars and
galaxies distributed above.
While some astronomers move
forward with these new surveys,
others work "backward" in a
sense, digitizing old-fashioned
photographs by translating the
information they contain into a
string of numbers that can be an-
alyzed and manipulated by com-
puters. A team at Maryland's
space Telescope Science Insti-
tute{ST Sol) is currently digitiz-
ing recent pictures of the
Southern Hemisphere sky taken
by an Anglo-Australian observa-
its hidden secrets
tory, as well as the contents of
the Second Palomar Obsen/atory
Sky Survey, a new atlas that in-
cludes nearly 3.000 photographs
of the northern sky. (The first
Palomar survey was completed
in 1957.) Interestingly, these pic-
tures are stored on glass plates
rather than film, because film can
bend and thus distort the posi-
tions of celestial objects, The ST
Scl group expects
to finish scanning
both sets of plates
by 1998 or 1999,
The ST Scl -Palo-
mar collaboration
makes tremendous
sense to George
Djorgovski, an as-
tronomer at the
California Institute
of Technology and
the Palomar Obser-
vatory. Computer
technology, he says,
provides "a way of
milking the data for
all it's worth and, in
fact, more than it
was worth originally."
Once digitized, the Palomar
survey will contain an unprece-
dented amount of astronomical
data three terabytes, enough
information to fill six million
books. The project will ultimately
identify two billion stars and 50
million galaxies.
The big challenge comes in
Computer technology provides
"a way of milking the data
more than was worth originally."
it
trying to process all Ihat informa-
tion. "In the past, people haven't
been able to analyze data as fast
as they can collect it." says
Usama Fayyad, a computer sci-
entist at the Jet Propulsion Labo-
ratory in California, To avoid a
similar bottleneck. Fayyad, Djor-
govski, and Nick Weir, an as-
.
tronomer formerly at Caltech and
Palomar, have developed a new
software program called SKICAT
that automatically finds and clas-
sifies sky objects while noting
their position and brightness. In
the old days, astronomers spent
untold hours staring at plates
through a microscope or magni-
fying glass, counting little dots
and charting their position with a
ruler. SKICAT not only automates
the process, it also does the job
more quickly and more accu-
rately than humans. "Historical
classification tasks that took
years can now be done in a mat-
ter of hours," Weir says,
ST Scl intends to put the cata-
log entries online, making them
accessible to anyone with a
modem. And after the second
Palomar photos are completely
digitized, Djorgovski and fiis col-
leagues at Caltech plan to digi-
tize the first Palomar survey By
comparing recent pictures of the
sky to those taken years ago,
astronomers can study transient
phenomena such as supernova
bursts, quasars, and variable
stars "Who knows what was in
the sky back then?" Fayyad
muses. The extended time cov-
erage also permits scientists to
chart the motions of stars, which
offer clues about the structure of
the galaxy.
Eventually, astronomers hope
to unearlh secrets lurking in other
for
plate collections scattered around
the world. "These plates won't
last forever, especially exposed
if
to air pollution," Lasker warns.
"We should digitize them now,
we still have the chance."OQ
while
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at http://www.omnimag.com.
 IAJHEEL5
FIXING THE FUTURE:
A tour of a high-tech research
By Jeffrey Zycmont
The top brass at Ford
had good reason
preen during the pubiic
dedication of the company's new
Scientific Research Laboratory,
held rn Deafborn, Michigan, at
the end of 1994, The expanded
lab culminates a $1.2 billion in-
vestment in R&D facilities thai
began more than live years ago.
John McTague, Ford's vice
president of technical affairs, put
the expenditure in a business
perspective. "The rapid develop-
ment and application of ad-
vanced technologies are fast
becoming one of the key com-
petitive advantages a company
can have," he said, spinning off
that oldadage, "You have to
spend money to make money."
But the payoff from this brand
of research comes far down the
foad. only aftera particular prod-
uct or process is perfected to the
Researchers point that dozens or even hun-
and technicians dreds of thousands of them can
laboring at be knocked off flawlessly and in-
Ford's new sci- expensively and millions ol car
ence factory owners will find the ideas useful
In Dearborn are enough to purchase.
developing Carl Johnson doesn't think car
Ihe futureloday. plants will employ the liquid
lab hints at driving's future
to
posite molding technique for plas-
tic body parts much before the
next century Still, he directs its re-
search with urgent determination
to contribute to a motor-scene
anxious for light, fuel-thrifty cars.
His task is to discover fast,
low-cost ways to mold plastic
around pre-shaped mats of
glass or carbon reinforcement
that make the finished pieces at
least as strong as steel, but up lo
60 percent lighter. Johnson over-
sees four technicians in a mater-
ial-science lab as large as a
tennis court, stretching upward
nearly three stories, where it's
capped by a tangle of catwalk,
gantry crane, and ductwork:
largeenough lo make a good
venue tor a chase scene in a
James Bond flick. The lab is
packed with retrigeraior-size in-
dustrial computers, toolchesls,
wires, hoses, conduits, cables,
and three big molding machines.
The largest one, big enough lo
fill a suburban garage, presses
out liquid composiie molded
fenders in trial runs, letting out a
persistent hiss and whir that's
punctuated by the occasional
com- pneumatic-robolic whoosh of se-
machinery
rious
Across the building, in the
chemical engineering depart-
ment, the labs are smaller, but
the discovery continues with the
same earnest anticipation. In the
atmospheric chemistry lab, Tim
Wallington has built a 140-liter
smog chamber to test Ihe envi-
ronmental impact of new fuels.
Looking like a seven-foot-long
glass thermos bottle, the cham-
ber takes ultrapurified air and
then mixes in nitrogen monoxide,
an engine by-product. A cylindri-
cal band of IJV lights wrapping
the thermos bottle mimics the
sun, turning the mixture to nitro-
gen dioxide smog. Wallington
then runs the brew through an
infrared spectrometer, revealing
the catalyst research lab pipe
in
gases through reactive com-
pounds lo find the formulas that
scrub ihe air cleanest. Four or-
ange-red, lableiop infernos burn
in minifurnaces encased in glass
and fed by a tangle of cables,
tubes, and cords.
Of course. Ford isn't alone in
this type of work. Across town,
General Ivlotors operates its own
future-focused R&D lab within the
GM technical center which is
housed in a square-mile campus
configured by the visionary archi-
tect Eero Saarinen. Honda con-
ducts R&D in Torrance, Califor-
nia, Ivlarysville, and at its
Ohio,
home bases m Wako and Tochigi,
Japan. Virtually every automaker
pours millions sometimes bil-
lions ot dollars into scientific in-
quiry Separately, Iheir efforts
push and pull the companies
into greater or lesser positions
within the ever-changing com-
petitive hierarchy But collec-
tively theresearch advances the
stale of automobility everywhere.
Accordingly in Ford's catalyst
research lab. Dr. Haren Gandhi
swirled 10.5 grams of black liq-
uid in a beaker to represent the
pollutants emitted each mile from
Ihe average automobile of the
1960s. His pride apparent. Dr.
Gandhi next held up a small
cylinder with just a splash of
black in the bottom. That, he
said, is the output from a con-
temporary car. To illustrate Ihe
eventual output from an ullra-
low-emission vehicle, he let a tiny
drop fall from a glass pipette.
"Being pan of that improve-
ment," said Dr Gandhi, who
in 1967 and
joined Ford research
who now manages the chemical
engineering labs, "even in a
small way you can't help but
feelgood about your work and
how it helps society "DO
 ELECTRDmiC
UmiWERBE
SPACED-OUT SCENARIOS:
Doom, and Descent, and Star Trek . . oh my!

By Gregg Keizer

Firsl-person science-fic- any gravity constraints. If you get the Next Step. Mars? CD-ROM
tion action games are nauseous on the ferris wheel, from IVI Publishing. Perfect for
bad for your health. They stay away from Descent. You're kids (but filled with enough info
l<eep you up all nighl in front of driving a robotic spaceship to keep most adults interested).
the computer or TV, run up your
phone bill when you make the Plenty of Imperial Stormtroopers
leap to multiplayer mode, and
crank up your virtual violence
managed to die in Star Wars, but
level to that of a digital Ted not like this. Dark Forces packs more
Bundy But hey, they're fun, right? violent behavior in a half-hour sitting than
Doom, which started the whole
you saw three movies.
in all
mess, begat a legion of in-your-
face games. Not surprising, for through corridors, blowing away Next Step: Mars? is a gentle, but
they're as visceral as gaming gets, enemy ships, and trying to get to thorough, Martian exploratorium.
in or out of the house. With claus-

trophobic sets, threatening situa-

the next of 30 levels. The per-
spective's slick and the freedom
The premise is goofy you're en-
listed by an Intergalactic Council
tions and enemies, limited re- of movement extraordinary. Still, to research Earth and its plans to
sources, and above all, a view that since the threats are machinery, head to fvlars, then report back
puts you in the shooter's seat. not embodied evil, It's tougher to with your findings
but the inter-
Doom and Its ilk break sweat get scared by this one. face is slick, There's the 3-D Vil-
faster than any other kind of game. Adding the ability to look up lage of Knowledge, where rooms
Doom and the are filled with objects
Doom
next-of-kin II: and data. Narrated
Hell on Earth (\6 Soft- reports, video, text,
ware/GT Interactive) still images, and
are the best places away-from-the-com-
lo start. You're a puter activities take
space marine wan- you from the history
dering through a of our thoughts on
Ivlars moon station Mars to future possi-
{Doom) or a cav- bilities of travel.
ernous Earih-based On the Internet. If
locale (Doom II). the only thing about
armed to the teeth Star Trek: Voyager
and lookin' for trou- that's scarier than
ble. A cast of bad Kate Mulgrew's steel
things your sights,
fills wool-edged voice is
from zombieNke hu- the possibility of
mans to grotesque demons, but and down and jump to the first- missing an episode, you need to
a few rounds from a shotgun or person viewpoint, Dark Forces hitthe Web page ai tittpj/Zvoy-
plasma rifle and they're toast. manages to evoke the world of ager.paramount.com. Using an
The plot is simple: Survive long LucasArts while slathering on the you can pull up brief
interface,
enough to get to the next level. firepower. The corridor mazes summaries of already-aired
Play on a network or across phone are complex, the sound effects episodes, read short bios of the
lines via modem, and these almost overwhelming {this Is on crew (and longer bios of the ac-
games feel like you're a character CD, so audio is excelient), and tors),and download audio and
in Aliens. If you have a Sega 32X though it's only single-player, the video clips from the series. It's
system, you can also play Sega's heart-pounding meter is near mostly fluff, but it's worth adding

version ofDoom in front of the TV. the red zone. to your Netscape or Mosaic
Compared to Doom, Inter- Mars Needs Women (and when you forget to punch
hotlisi
play's Descent drops you into Kids). Going to Mars would be a Record on your VCR.DQ
freefall. That's because you've frighleningly difficult job, but
got a full range ol motion both learning about the Red Planet Is Please visit our World Wide Web site
honzontally and vertically, without a lot less scary, especially with at tittp://www.omnl mag.com.
 CDfUTimuunn
NOT JUST A BILL ON CAPITOL HILL:
Pulling for the NIE. Plus, watching fruitflies copulate, and using
zebra mussels as water filters

Establishing a new science instituie? doesn't sound like

II Phnceton University and chairman of the Committee for
something the potentates of the new gouernmenta! order the NIE, He notes that the NIE would ensure that policies
would approve of Nevertheless, a proposed National are enacted appropriately without regard for who hap-
Institute for the Environment {NIE} is shaping up into pens to be in office.

something both sides of the debate can love: a nonregu- Hubbell envisions the NIE serving as a unifying force,
laiory, national, granting institution that will streamline driving a continuing, comprehensive analysis of interdis-
America's environmental research efforts and ultimately ciplinary environmental problems. For example, some
result in better, cheaper science policy, scientists maintain that chlorine mingled with pesticides
A Washington, DC-based committee has been lobby- can mimic Ihe effects of estrogen, causing feminization of
ing for Ihe N!E since environmental scientists Henry F. wildlife. One theory holds that the declines in the Great

Howe and Stephen R Hubbell first proposed the idea back Lakes' fish populations can be attributed to related losses
in 1989- Today, NIE supporters include Dow Ciiemical, the of funclion. The NIE would have a broad enough man-
World Wildlife Fund, the National Council of Negro Women, date to link, say neuroendocrinology with environmental
and Newt Gingrich. This science to help exam-
almost inconceivably ine the varied science
diverse alliance speaks issues in such a case.

to the universally rec- Rather than operat-

ognized need for a sin- ing completely inde-
gle entity; one tf>at will pendently of existing
distribute data among programs such as the
existing environmental EPA and Ihe U.S. Fish
agencies, fill in crucial and Wildlife Service,
gaps in research, and the NIE would instead
provide Ihe balanced, be tightly linked with
credible information them. The NIE planners
needed by policymak- want research directors
ers to solve environ- of federal agencies to
mental problems before serve on an advisory
they escalate into cost- panel so that they can
ly crises. In addition, prevent duplication of
plans for the NIE call for effort and ensure that

it to lake responsibility the NIE's work comple-

for environmental edu- ments existing federal
cation and data dissemination, providing a mechanism lo research programs. The NIE scenario also calls for the
linkworking scientists with each other and with the public. help coordinate research with education, a key
institute to

Legislation to establish the NIE has historically
enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress. Minority
leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, is considering Ihe rein-
troduction of the NIE bill in the Senate, white Republican
Jim Saxton leads the effort in the House. The current
administration, however, "does not think creating and
funding such a new entity is desirable at this time," pre-
ferring to rely on the already-established Committee on
Environment and Natural Fiesources (CENR), according
to statements made by John H. Gibbons, assistant to the
president for science and technology,
"There's a general consensus that CENR has not been
very effective at coordination in these times of budget
auslerity," says Hubbell, an evolutionary biologist at
service that no existing agency provides.
But wait there's more. The plans for the NIE include
the establishment of the National Library for the
Environment, which would house relevant information on
issues ranging from wetlands protection to toxic-waste
cleanup. The library would be open to everyone with a
stake in an issue, from business leaders to local govern-
ments to homeowners.
Indeed, this new institute may end up making every-
body happy. For now, its future is in the hands of legisla-
tors, "Against the backdrop of the budget debate,"
Saxton says, "the NIE presents an opportunity for the
United States to reinvent environmental science."
PATJANOWSKI


CDfUTimuunn

correct fragrance, receive ioned into a nifty wind

about half the courtship shelter He met with repre-
attention.Pheromones can sentatives of the Chicago
also change males "from Precast Products Company of
becoming really attracted to Naperville, and an inspired
a female to being com- collaboration soon began.
The result of this
cooperative venture, the
THE LARGEST CREATURE FermiShelter now sits
next to Lab 8, ready in the-
WITHOUT A BACK-
ory, to comfortably hold
BONE IS THE ATLANTIC 60 people while withstanding
GIANT SQUID, SOO-miie-per-hour winds
WEIGHING 2.5 TONS. and fending off flying objects
such as trees or cars. The
structure, arguably the first
piGiely averse to i^er," ex- above-ground tornado
plains Coyne. shelter has a curvy, "wind-
Of drosophila's four chro- shedding" shape with no
mosomes, "only a single sharp edges or indentations
small region of a single chro- for ttie wind to grab hold
mosome was responsible of. It's a sleek, 25-fool-long
for this difference," states tunnel made out of 11-
Coyne, who believes this inch-thick reinforced concrete
tiny genetic difference "is a slabs, welded into the
very important contributor shape of an arch.
to the origin of these species." "Structures like this make

J. Blake Lambert sense places where
in

basements may not be fea-

sible," explains Liz Ruben-
THIS FLY WALKS with chemicals (pheromones) WIND BREAKER stein, a marketing engineer
INTO A CROWDED in the waxy substance cover- for the company, "The
ing their bodies, which stim- As a particle physicist and whole thing is portable and
ulate chemoreceptors in the senior safety officer at modular, making easy it

Watching flies copulate is an
important pari of recent
work refuting ttie idea that
species arise only via
many changes of small ef-
some instances,
fect. In
very small genetic changes
have profound effects,
says Jerry Coyne, professor of
ecology and evolution at
the University of Chicago.
Numerous barriers
male's forelegs and mouth, Fermilab, Hans Jostlein has to add or subtract concrete
Coyne's group studied four to worry about lofty sections," Steve Nadis
species. In two, males and matters like confirming the
females both wear tricosene, existence of the top quark
and males will court these as well as mundane issues
females, but not females of like protecting his col-
the other two species, leagues from harm. The latter
which wear heptacosadiene. concern weighed heavily
Males of these latter two on him, especially when he
species wear tricosene and thought of Lab 8, a poorly
will court any of the females. constructed industrial build-
However the discriminat- ing thai would offer little

discourage species mixing,
one of the most important
of which is sexual isolation,
where species differ in
mating behaviors, says Coyne.
For example, female fruit
flies (drosophila) attract males
ing males can be fooled.
A female of the "wrong" spe-
cies crowded among "right"
ones can obtain enougfi pher-
omone to be sexually inter-
esting
even dead. And hy-
if
brid females, with half the
protection in the event of a
windstorm or tornado.
Jostlein spotted the solu-
tion to hisconcerns in the
form of concrete chunks lying
alongside the roadway
chunks which might be fash-
WIPP SMART
In Department
1988. the of
Energy (DOE) planned to
begin depositing plutonium-
contaminated wastes from
U.S nuclear weapons plants
2,CX)0 feet below the earth's
surface in salt deposits near
Carlsbad, New Mexico.
The DOE postponed those
plans as a response to
environmental criticism; and
seven years later the facility
called the Waste Isolation Pi-
'n-\
lotPlant (WIPP) remains
unused. Astronomers hope
to lake advantage of this
unique, abandoned site to
study supernovas and the
elusive emissaries from those
violent stellar explosions,
neutrinos
A neutrino observatory
VENUS, WHICH SHINES BRIGHTLY ENOUGH
TO BE VISIBLE DURING THE DAY, ACCOUNTS FOR
ABOUT 25 PERCENT OF UFO SIGHTINGS.
must be underground to
provide shielding from cos-
mic rays. Low levels ol
background radioactivity are
also essential. According
to preliminary measurements,
WIPP scores well on both
counts. "In fact, this site has
ttie lowest radioactive
background of any place we
know of on earth," says
UCLA physicist David
amember of the astron-
omy team that wants to install
hundreds of neutron
detectors in the subter-
ranean facility The basic
idea is that neutrinos from a
supernova explosion might
pass through the salt beds,
unleashing neutrons that
could be picked up by an
array of instruments.
By measuring the exact
timing of the neutron sight-
ings, scientists hope
how fast neutrinos travel
and, by inference, whether
these particles have any
mass, It's a point of major cos-
mological significance,
since that single measure-
ment could mean the dif-
ference between a universe
that expands forever or
one in which matter eventu-
ally begins to collapse.
Cline and his colleagues
still need to secure per-
mission from the Department
of Energy as well as raise
additional funds. "The bigges:
problem is not money,
but finding a place where we
can set up our equipment
and leave it alone, possibly
fordecades," he says.
The hope is that a nuclear
waste disposal iacility
storing materials that
stay radioactive for tens
ofthousands of years
might be around for a
while.Steve Nadis
Cline.
SArE FLYING ZONE we thought they were
few years ago," says
just a
During the late 1960s Richard Stotarski, a
and early 1970s, the U.S. research scientist at the
to learn government financed NASA Goddard Space
the design of prototype su- Flight Center
personic aircraft, and Cruising altitude may be
planned to build a fleet o> ihe key factor 'There
500 planes. This vast appears to be an altitude ;
fleet never materialized, due where large fleets of
to concerns about sonic
booms, air pollution, and
ozone depletion. [Theo-
SSTs would not harm the
ozone layer," says Harold
Johnston, an atmospheric
retical models predicted chemist at the University
that 10 percent of the o! California, Berkeley This
earth'sozone layer would so-called "safe flying
be destroyed by nitro- zone" is thought to lie be-
gen oxides released in the tween 1 7 and 20 kilome-
stratosphere.) although an
ters in altitude,
NASA and the aircraft exact cut-off point has
industry have attempted yet to be established Sci-
to revive the concept, cit- entists are also trying
ing developments that to determine the e/rteni to
may make the idea more which aircraft exhaust
salable. On the drawing gases will drift upward in the
board are new engmos thai atmosphere to altitudes
would emit several iimes where damage to ozone
less exhaust than the Con- will be more substantial
commer- Ozone, of course, is not
corde, the only
cialsupersonic transport the only environmental
(SST) now flying. Also. issue, "We need to look at
NASA conducted dozens how other things in the
of research flights in the exhaust water, soot, and
stratosphere in 1993 and sullur migfit affect the
1994 to measure con- climate," Stolarski says. "For
centrations of various gases, once, we're trying to figure
will and the results are en- this out in advance, rather
couraging, "The effects of than just going ahead
just nitrogen oxides ori ozone and seeing what happens,"
are not nearly as large as -Steve Nadis

comTimuurui
STRANGE LIAISONS
A group of scientists, 10.000
leet down along the East
Pacific Risein the deep-sea
research submersibie
Alvin, were recently startled
by the sight of Iwo male
octopuses of diffGrent spe-
cies, their arms entwined
in amorous embrace.
all sorts of ques-
It raises
tions about what's going
on down there," says octopus
specialist Janet Voight of
the Field Museum of Natural
History in Chicago, who
was summoned to analyze
1 6 minutes of videotaped
footage of the X-rated en-
counter the first of its kind
spotted in the wiid. "If you're
going to see one, and
only one act of mating be-
haviorbetween deep sea
octopuses, you would not
36 OMNI
ON AN EMPTY
STOMACH, ALCOHOL IS
ABSORBED INTO THE
BLOODSTREAM IN LESS
THAN A MINUTE.
expect to see this,"
The lurid film was shot
the Hole to Hell, west of
Guatemala along the mid-
ocean ridge that extends
up into the Gulf of California,
according to marine ecol-
ogist Richard Lutz of the
tute of Marine and Coastal
Studies at Rutgers University.
The smaller partner, a 15-
inch white octopus, was of a
species that had not previ-
ously been seen. One of his
grooved arms had a cup-
shaped grasper at the end.
Males use this to insert a
"
SOOT FINGERPRINTS
Using heavily magnified
pictures taken from a Irans-
'nsslon electron micro-
icope, or TEM, scientists at
ine [Vlassachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology can now
"fingerphnt" individual
soot particles. This tech-
nique may eventually
enable them to trace soot to
its source, whether that is
a particular type of combus-
tion engine or a specific
factory's smokestack.
Soot from different sources
has distinctively different
characteristics, according to
chemical engineers Ad el
Saroftm and John Vander
Sande. They enlarged
the TEM pictures roughly 2,5
million times and then pro-
duced digitally enhanced im-
ages of single layers, which
form the particles.
The MIT scientists then
compared the enhanced
duct. Thai's exactly what he images with the originals and
was doing to a much discovered that the spac-
larger six-foot, grayish-brown ing between the layers varied
octopus when the Alvin with the type of fuel that
arrived to record the deep- produced the soot. In other
sea mating ritual between words, soot produced by
the two males. diesel fuel has a uniquely dif-
Since cephalopods aren't ferent layer structure from
in hermaphrodilic, Voight that produced by anthracene.
theorizes the odd coupling
occurred because every
time octopuses meet at such
lonely depths, each must
explore the possibility, how-
Insti- ever remote, that the other
might be a female, lest they
miss a rare mating oppor-
tunity George Nobbe
"If A equals success, then
the formula A=X+Y+Z.
work. Y is play. Z is l<eep
X is
your moulfi shut. E?^%^^~:
Albert Eins^e.n

That's Irue because the
two pass through different
thermal and chemical
environments.
"They look exactly like a
fingerprint," says Sarofim,
describing the different par-
aiiel lines of spacing be-
tween carbon atoms of sool.
"At the moment we aim to
distinguish between soot from
the major types of (uei
such as diesel, wood, fuei
and natural gas. But in
time we hope to say whether
a particle came from a
particular type of engine or
even a certain factory"
If it works as well in the
field as 11 has on lab sam-
ples of air, ihe fingerprints
could not only lead pollu-
tion sleuths to Irouble spots,
but also lead to filtration
systems more adept at trap-
ping airborne particles,
s Nobbe
sMAtamKmumm
The Federal Aviation Admin-
istration (FAA), plagued
by a recent series of plane
crashes apparently caused
by accumulated snovj and
.
iceon wings and engines,
may have been handed a
I
A New Jersey father-and-
-
NANOPUMPS
Researchers at the U.S. De-
partment ol Energy's
Pacific Northwest Labora-
tory (PNL) are designing
miniature heat pumps that
could drastically improve
heating and coding in build-
ings of the future. Dis-
tributing many smaller heai
pumps throughout a build-
oil, ing could save energy, says
Kevin Drost of PNL, proj-
ect co-manager (with Bob made as small at j.
Wegeng), because it with performance 10 to 100
would eliminate losses of times better than required.
about 1 5 percent due to The team hopes
cycling a large system on and sheets of evaporators,
off, and 30 to 40 percent compressors, and condens-
in the ducting. In homes, he ers, then sandwich them
adds, only about half the into one thicker sheet "that
energy actually gets to where acts like a heat pump but
needed
it's in reality consists of a large
The PNL team has devel- number of individual heat
oped evaporators and pumps operating in
condensers which can be lel," Drost says
problems by a father-and-
BImBBBB**'^^'""
SmartSkin ttiat
conducts
son team of inventors electricity lo keep vital
from Mahwah, New Jersey ponents warm. The pat-
The FAA and Ihe Na- ented approach is the inven-
tional Aeronauiics and Space tion of Ot)s H, Hastings
Admimslratlon (NASA) and his son. Otis M ,
are both test-flying planes Thermion Technologies.
equipped with a thin layer "it's a very simple applica-
tion of a heating clement
within a mckei-coated graph-
ite fiber scrim,," explains
Ihe elder Hastings, whose
coaiing can be impreg-
nated or rolled inio the
paltPd ^LrfTeOi J">y
} 1^ e Once apple
m'll censors deteL
^
lor airplanes cal ground oullet or n
.ik-e At first the energy-saving
devices will be used
"where weight and volume
to make
are important defense
applications, space applica-
tions, transportation."
Eventually the team hopes
todesign a sheet of ther-
mally active material, that
could "sense its environ-
ment and then respond ther-
paral- mally" as desired.
J. Blake Lambert
called
the air by the EffimmilJ^BBH
gines' power systems.
com- "SmartSkin can warm
wing cages and vertical
stabilizers that are essential
to flight withoul distort-
of ing the aerodynamics." says
Hastings The invention
could render obsolete the
currem use of glycol
sprays or other old-fashioned
de-icing remedies, such
as bleeding hot air off the 1
planes' engines.
The inventors say the
graphite scnm is so thin
1 tn'^r It's vidualiy invisible once i!
ren? IS impregnated into the
aircraft's paint. They have li-
censed their low-energy
system to Aerospace Safety
Technologies, a Menden,
Nevada aviation manufactur-
ing supplier. George Nobbe
 REBURYIN'G
THE PAST

S<%K

* * 3'.

back as the Depression-haunted

w^St^ '^

^^9SSt 1930s, the Dickson

S^^^^
IBPEi^^JWSSM
IlUnois, had been a

ular local tourist attraction.

-f over 200 exposed

m^^BBS^^^ '
JIBS^SSB
ImMMM^Mmm
-^-- -! -^
-dian graves.

the skeletal remains of the

occupants revealed

fcS*, as they had been found yea

mer, Don Dickson, had begun

jS^
excavating the

burials in 1927 at least partly

out of professional interest as a cfii-
I
cans have demanded the return (or
ropraclor (he wanted to examine tine I "repatriation") of remains and arti-
;s) and, in tfiose days, \he I
I
facts held b'^ the nation'smuseums.
Dicl^Eon Mounds attraction was little
f I
and more sensitive exhibits on Na-
5than a wood-frame stnelier - wmerican culture. During the

over a iiole in the ground. -i-nth and early twentieth cen-

Trouble began in the early - archaeologists and agents
1970s, when (he slate buill a new such prominent institutions as
museum on the site. Native Ameri- |
I
the Smithsonian and the American
cans, upset by the exploitative ex- Museum of .Natural History were
it, threatened to protest at the digging up relics from Native Ameri-
seum's dedication cererr,my 1 burial grounds and trading for

5 protest never occurred, bui artifacts on reservations. Vast col-

I

complaints continued intermr.torr , lections of material

from prehis-
until 1989 when, sensing the shiHr i
loric pottery and bone carvings to
tide of public opinion, Judith Ptfyi feather headdresses, mumm
I
and si^elelons
ended up in the dis-
mended to the governor of Illinois ;
play cases and storage boxes of
that the exhibit be closed. I
museums. As Native American
But that wasn't the end of the tivism grew during the 1960s and
trouble. When the local Lewislown I 197DS, pressure on museums to n
public heard of the plan to close the I turn
such objects particularly the
site, they protested in return. The llli-
j
human remains grew as well.
nois Department of Natural Re- The repalnation issue reached
sources held hearings; Dicl<son I
I
watershed in the 1980s, when ar-
Mounds became a battleground of I chaeologists and museum curators.
ihe 1990 Illinois gubernatorial cam- who had largely remained passlv
t; and the decision was re- before (hoping, perhaps, that the

ed the exhibit would stay I issue would blow over in time).
Native American groups
I. I started to give Native American
[
demonstrated outside the museum; I
claims serious consideration and,
some leaped into Ihe pits and cov- n some cases, to agree to return all

ered the sl<elelons with blani^ets; or part of their collections to the

I

and Ihe verdict was changed again. tribes. California's Department of

1 April 1992, the site was officially I Paries and Recreation, which held
closed to the public, a concrete |
hundreds of skeletons, was one of
slab was laid over the pit of open the first, yielding to pressure ii

graves, and with that the last exhibit 1983, but challenge from archaeolo-
]

of Native American remains in gists held the repatriation back for

I

country was sealed. The governor I ny years. As the decade pro-

nitted $4 million to renovate |
I gressed, the weight of opinion
and expand the museum, as a salve began to shift toward the Native
to ihe angry residents of Lewislown, American view, and other institu-
but hardly anyone was pleased by I tions such as Stanford University
the
compromise Native Americans I and Ihe University of Nebraska
wanted the bones reburied rather agreed lo return collections. Most
than simply covered over, scientists I significantly, Ihe Smithsonian Institu-

wanted more lime to study the re- iion, which had held out under in-

mains, and the local townspeople I creasingly ardent protests for years,
still felt their interests had been f
signed an agreement with two na-
manhandled by outsiders. nal Indian organizations
The bitter conflict at Dickson I ! September 1989, providing for the
Mounds is just one of many such I
return of some of its 18,500 Native
clashes that have plagued mu; j
American "specimens" and their as-
and archaeologists over Ihe I
I
sociated funeral objects.
past several years, as Nalive Ameri- As Ihe number of professional ar-

l!;c and conllicl (or inusctiin curators and arcnacoloaisls.

chaeologists and museum curators
who favor repatriation has grown, so
has a very personal brand of passion
on both sides. Normally polite acade-
mic papers in journals such as Ameri-
can Antiquity drift at times toward insult
with terms like "immoral" and "hypocrisy"
and phrases like "the anthropological
trap of cultural relativism." The Council
for West Virginia Archaeology and the
Society for West Virginia Archaeology
jointlysued the state of West Virginia
over a plan to excavate a burial mound
at Cotigathey felt the state plan gave
too much power to a coalition of Native
Americans who had voiced concern.
Not content with a court battle, the
plaintiffs fought it out in the press as
well, "I saw things that were vitriolic
against me personally in artifact-trader
magazines and collector magazines,"
recalls William G, Farrar, deputy com-
missioner of the West Virginia Division of
Culture and History with some amuse-
ment and a touch of old irritation.
In keeping with the trend, the state
won the case, and a subsequent ap-
peal. "We established that repatriation
is a program that's here to stay" says
Farrar Bit by bit, a consensus is form-
ing, says Anthony Klesert, director of
the Navajo Nation Archaeoiogical De-
partment in Window Rock, Arizona,
"that, indeed, these things are the
property of Indian tribes." That consen-
sus is what scares some archaeolo-
gists and museum professionals. If
objects are relumed to Native Ameh-
cans, there's no way to ensure their
fate, "They'll have the right of determin-
ing what happens to them," says
James Brown, chairman of the anthro-
pology department at Northwestern
University, "including the right to sell
them." The Yup'lk natives of St,
Lawrence Island, Alaska, recently took
to raiding their own archaeological
sites and selling the valuable artifacts
to dealers.
But resale isn't the most disturbing
{or likely) possibility by far Much of the
material returned to Native Americans
will be destroyed in one way or another.
The human remains and funeral objects
will be rebuhed. Other objects, such as
the striking wooden war-god sculptures
crafted by the Zuni, will simply be ex-
posed to the elements to decompose
naturally, as they were originally
tended to do by Zuni custom,
Certainly, some of the resistance to
repatriation derives from sentimentality
but the loss of scientific data and
it's
access to precious archaeological re-
sources that will hurt the most. "When a
new advance comes along," Brown ex-
plains, "it's precisely those well-known,
well-documented collections that the
promoters of the new methodology or
perspective go to in order to verify and
affirm the usefulness of their ap-
proach." Over time, such benchmark
collections, which have been analyzed
and reanalyzed by dozens of different
techniques, become ever more valuable
to researchers. "In that light," says
Brown with a note of regret, "the con-
signment of the collection to oblivion is
rather unfortunate,"
The trend toward repatriation and
the accommodation of Native Ameri-
can concerns reflects a general shift in
public opinion toward respecting the
viewpoints of historically oppressed mi-
norities. The same cultural forces that
have brought team names like the
Washington Redskins under fire have
bequeathed a powerful moral force to
the proponents of repatriation. "For so
long archaeologists have taken a really
coloniallstic attitude toward Indians
and their remains," says Anthony
Klesert. "To a certain extent, we've got
it coming," Bui there's more to it than
ashionable group guilt. Anthropologi-
fashionable
The trend toward
general
toward respecting the viewpoints of his-
torically
cal ethics dictate a stance of neutral
cultural relativism and noninterference,
Klesert explains, "which means
into account the world-view and the
point-of-view of the people gener-
ated these objects." Looked at that
way, repatriation seems less like a be-
trayal of scientific principles than fi-
delity to scientific ethics, even if it
means precious relics and valuable ev-
idence must be destroyed. "From an
anthropological point of view, maybe
that's what should happen," Klesert
suggests, "if the makers, the design-
ers, the users of the items want them
destroyed, that's the way should be." it
"If thai were my grandmother's head
up on the says William Farrar,
shelf,"
"I'd be incensed, and so would most of
the people in the state of West Virginia,"
in- But, Klesert points out, it's
to support the Native American view-
point only when one's own
sponse agrees with it. "That's missing
the point it's not a question of how
would you feel, it's how do they feel."
Farrar elaborates' "I don't have
in if, but have to respect their beliefs,
I
the same as would respect the beliefs
I this office, pehod," he Insists.
of professional archaeologists even if
didn't like professional archaeology."
That becomes a particularly impor-
tant distinction when issues of respect
for Native American beliefs tread on
some of our own most ireasured princi-
ples. One of the points in the Cotiga
burial mound dispute was a request by
the Native American group that female
researchers working at the site not han-
dle the burial materials the human re-
mains and related funeral objects
while they were menstruating. "My
immediate reaction," says Farrar, "was,
well, you can ask, but I'm not going to
enforce it, and don't know it anyone
1
will agree to that,"
The issue was resolved, however,
without conflict, The spokesperson for
the Native American group (a woman)
talked It over with the head of the ar-
chaeological team (also a woman), and
she agreed to honor their request. "She
said she'd been in that situation on
several reservation digs," Farrar re-
calls. "That it wouldn't interfere with
their work, and it would foster good n
lations, so no sweat."
repatriation reflects a
shift in public opinion
oppressed minorities,
Likewise, the sensitive issue
is of con-
fidentiality
what critics would call cen-
taking
sorship raises the hackles of
Amen cans weaned on the first amend-
who ment. "Confidentiality is an important
aspect of a lot of sacred places and
sacred ceremonies," says Anthony
Klesert. "It has to be respected." Na-
tive Americans are often loathe to
share Information about sacred topics
at all, and when they do, they want to
have a say about its publication and
dissemination. Photographs and other
documentation of buhai sites may of-
fend some Native Americans, who
would rather no such records were
kept, even for scientific purposes.
Robert ivtaslowski, president of the
Council for West Virginia Archaeology,
claims that the original plan for the
not enough Cotiga mound excavation would have
returned all the materials
even the
gut-level re- scientific
records to the Native Ameri-
cans for disposal, though in the end no
such action occurred, and Farrar de-
nies that he would ever have endorsed
to believe such a plan. "1 will not stand for censor-
ship on anything that comes through
I The 1990 Native American Graves
protection and Repatriation Act {NAG- between what was left in the past and way for archaeologists and museums
PRA) brought some mucti-needed who lives today," Over the centuries, to keep their precious materials. "Give
structure to ttie morass of ethical de- many different tcibes may have occu- me a break," says Anthony Klesert. "What
bate. Wtiile it essentially favors Native pied a particular area, and records for IS clear is that these things aren't related

Americans, requiring repatriation of
several categories of material and es-
tablishing procedures for handling
buhals discovered on federal or tribal
lands, MAGPRA also set some limits on
Native American demands. It covers
only a narrow range of relics and re-
quires Native American claimants to
demonstrate some "cultural affilia-
tion"
a "reasonable" link {not neces-
sarily based on direct genealogical
descent) between their ancestry and
the remains or artifacts in question,
NAGPRA become a reference point
has
for both scientists and Native Ameri-
cans
a "middle ground," says Richard
Stoffle of the University of Arizona's Bu-
reau of Applied Research and Anthro-
pology, where the opposing parties
can meet to resolve the specific terms
of the act itself as well as the larger is-
sues of their relationship,
NAGPRA specified that any facility
Native Americans are exceptionally
careful. The
some regions (and some collections)
are hopelessly spotty Stoffle and his
colleagues have conducted several
cultural affiliation studies, some in con-
nection with NAGPRA, to help institu-
tions determine which living people
might be related to their collections. "A
study tells you who to
cultural affiliation
talk with," Stoffle says. "We take the
broadest possible net, and we look at a
place and say who could possibly
have lived here in whatever time pe-
riod, and we argue for the involvement
"
of those tribes
all
But then all that remains are repre-
sentatives from the various affiliated
tribes, not a solution, Critics question how
well anyone's concerns will be addressed
by such a process, and whether Native
American groups are going to make wise
decisions about the long lists of arti-
facts museums are sending them. But
archaeologists who have worked
last thing they
to us, European-stock archaeologists,"
NAGPRA itself may be limited to
specific categories of materials and to
the holdings of federally funded institu-
it's also served as a catalyst
tions, but
fordiscussing and resolving wider is-
sues of respect for Native American
concerns. The American Indian Reli-
gious Freedom Act of 1978 (AIRFA)
mandated protection for a much
broader range of materials and issues
related to Native American culture;
Rather than just burial sites and funeral
objects, AIRFA encompasses such
things as important wild plants and ani-
mals, and what Richard Stoffle calls
"traditional cultural properties," sacred
sites which may show little or no evi-
dence of human habitation, and so are
not often protected from development
or intrusion. AIRFA didn't have the
"teeth" of NAGPRA, with its very spe-
closely cific requirements, deadlines, and
penalties, but many institutions are tak-
ing the opportunity to comply with
AIRFA's terms as they come into com-
pliance with NAGPRA, "Thai's good,"
says Stoffle. "From a Native American
standpoint, think it's a lot better to
I

have AIRFA compliance,"

want to do is bring somebody else's body Such broad consultations will likely
be NAGPRA's most important and last-
back to their reservation. ing effect, "Its purpose
museums," says C. Timothy
to loot
is certainly not

receiving federal funds had to make an with Native Americans think they'll be McKeown, the National Park Service's
inventory of its Native American hold- exceptionally careful in going over mu- program leader for national implemen-
ings, determine (in consultation with seum inventories and claiming items. tation of NAGPRA, "The legacy of
Native Americans and scientists) which "In most cases they're really conserva- NAGPRA be that it mandates dia-
will

tribes might be culturally affiliated with tive," says Richard Stoffle. "The last logue between museums and Indian
their objects, inform the tribes of their thing they want to do is bring somebody tribes." Once archaeologists, museum
findings (by November 16, 1995), and else's body back to their resen/ation." curators, federal land managers, and
return to them any affiliated items in Still, NAGPRA's necessarily vague others start talking to concerned Native
several categories. Generally, NAGPRA definitions allow museum directors to Americans and exchanging views,
demands the return of human remains view cultural affiliation as narrowly as problems can be resolved before they
and associated grave goods, unasso- possible indeed, professional ethics NAGPRA works, there will be a
start. "If

cialed grave goods (objects ot a fune- may require them to do so. Museums better partnership between museum
real nature but not accompanied by have a "public trust," explains Judith professionals and the tribes," says
any remains in the collection), sacred Franks, and whatever the personal Richard Stoffle,
objects^meaning materials vital for feelings of curators, they can't just give That partnership will do a lot more
American reli-
the practice of Native objects in their care to whoever makes than help in avoiding future problems.

gion and objects of "cultural patri- a claim. Others feel that NAGPRA ought The adversarial relationship between
mony," a vague term alluding to to be interpreted as broadly as possi- archaeology and Native Americans has
culturally important items which belong ble. For instance, says Richard Stoffle, left archaeologists working without the

to the tribe as a whole, and therefore
should never have been traded or sold
by individual tribe members.
In many ways, NAGPRA has only re-
fined the debate, not resolved it. Its
gray areas leave room for widely vary-
ing interpretations. The requirement of
cultural affiliation is a knottier problem
than itmight seem. "From an archaeo-
logical standpoint." says Richard Stof-
fle, "it's very hard to make a connection
34 OMNI
"we believe that unrecognized tribes
have a right to participate," He and his
colleagues recommend that unrecog-
nized tribes, not technically covered by
NAGPRA, be included in museum con-
sultations. "Simply because the federal
government currently doesn't recog-
nize them should not disqualify them
from the process," he says. For some,
splitting hairs over the degree of cul-
tural affiliation is nothing bul a cynical
benefit of one of the best potential
sources of information the Native
Americans themselves. When it comes
io interpreting finds, says Anthony
Klesert, "they have the inside track."
NAGPRA-mandated consultations
could yield a wealth of information
about museum holdings. "You put In-
dian people on archaeological materi-
als," says Richard Sloffle, "and do so in
a manner in which their information is
desired for its protection, and they'll
share knowledge that archaeologists
are hungry for" As MAGPRA deadlines
have come and gone, Timothy McKe-
own has fielded panicky calls from small,
understaffedmuseums with less-than-
thoroughly documented collections.
"The Indians are coming,' they
McKeown recounts. "'What should
do?' 1 tell them I'd listen attentively,
I'd jotthings down, because you're
about to learn a lot about your collec-
tion.The experts are coming to you."
Native Americans can also learn
somelhing from talking with museum
staff and archaeologists. For decades
the federal government pursued a pol-
icy of assimilation and suppression of
Native American cultures, and muse-
ums and anthropologists were often the
only parties (save the Indians them-
selves) interested in preserving a record
of those endangered societies. Particu-
larly in the East and Midwest, where
Native Americans were forcibly re-
moved from their lands, and their cultures
were sharply disrupted by European in-
vasion, archaeology can provide a
unique and vital link to the past.
William Farrar recalls that during the
excavation at Cotiga, "there were a lot
of Native Americans who came down
to the site to see what was going on,
and who understand that what the ar-
chaeologists are bringing out is also
teaching Ihem about their past civiliza-
tions," First-hand exposure might even
inspire more Native Americans to take
up archaeology or anthropology as a
profession, which could only be a great
boon to research as well as to the on-
going dialogue between the two
camps. "There are all too few American
Indian archaeologists and anthropolo-
gists at least in this part of the country,"
says Judith Franke.
Anthony Klesert helped establish
two programs for training Native Ameri-
cans as professionals, one at Northern
Arizona University and the other at Fort
Lewis College in Durango, Colorado,
but they're small and poorly funded,
supported as they are by the Navajo
tribe itself. "We're laying some ground-
work here," Klesert says, "but anthro-
pology departments need
focusing on recruiting Native Ameri-
cans themselves."
NAGPRA has already had some
mutually beneficial side effects. The
Arizona Stale fvluseum now has a com-
mittee of Native Americans who consult
not only on NAGPRA issues, but on the
collection as a whole and on the pre-
sentation of Native American culture in
the museum's exhibits. "The museum's
going to be a beller place because In-
dian people and museum profession-
als have gotten together," says Stoffle. and the public is the source of our fund-
NAGPRA also specifies that if a burial ing. We depend on the good impres-
is discovered anywhere on federal or sions of the public, and by golly they're
work at the site must stop for
tribal land, going to side with the Indians they
30 days to allow Native Americans and will, there's no question about that."
archaeologists to study the remains The power of the Native American
and determine their disposal. That clause appeal comes down to two factors: the
say," might actually lead to the completion of volume of the complaint, and the moral
we more archaeological research. Under force behind it. No outcry arose over
and NAGPRA, contractors will have an in- the handling ot the well-preserved
terest in commissioning comprehen- body of the now-famous Ice fvlan found
sive archaeological surveys of potential in the Alps a few years ago, though at
construction sites, says Timothy McKe- only 5,000 years old and with such
own, because "the last thing they want good preservation. might have been It
to do is put a construction project through possible to determine likely relatives
a place where there are burials, and with far more accuracy than in most
have to wait 30 days every time they hit Native American cases. "They have all
one." Anthony Klesert recalls one re- sorts of Neanderthal human remains on
cent case in which the Peabody Coal display in Europe," Klesert points out,
Company arranged for an exhaustive "because nobody complains." Had
survey of an Anasazi burial ground be- some of the Swiss "descendants" of
fore Ihey started digging, "If NAGPRA the Ice Man raised a protesi, perhaps
hadn't been passed," says Klesert, his remains would have been promptly
"those remains would have been reburied as well.
plowed under by the drag line." Native Americans occupy a unique
Museum curators and archaeologists position in the moral history ot our
would be wise to focus on such en- country, a position which invests their
couraging reports. Klesert, for one, be- feelings with a profound force few other
lieves that substantial repatriation is interest groups can match, "It's a ques-
inevitable, and that opposing it will only tion of respect," says William Farrar,
hurt more in more people
the end, "The "and until you can figure out a better
drag more we start look-
their feet, the way to handle that, reburial is what's
ing like the bad guys in the public eye. going to happen. "DO
you use tobacco the way Vou smoiie out of
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 Article By Linda Marsa
Illustration by Sfanislaw Femandes

"Today, the only wealth there is in the H - ealth that comes trem tiumon mind; How high-teoh firms ore cashing in on tomorrow's gold mind,

WHOSE
IDEAS
ARE
THEY
ANYWAY
Intellectual
Properly
in the
Intormation
Age
There's an underground wdr being waged But no hostages hove been seized, no shots fired,
and no oosuaities sustained. This covert bottie is over intelleotual propert/ rights, the obscure
branch of the iow that determines who owns and who profits from ideas. Yet the outcome of
this bioodless struggie could condemn society fo o Blade Runner future
where a monoiithic
 '

corporate state owns everything, from the technology becomes more complex and
deepest reaches of cyberspace to each the law increasingly esoteric, the victors in

base pair on the human genome, these undeclared wars may be those who
"Billions of dollars are at stake in what is can afford the heaviest artillery, "Large,
essenlially the ephemeral, but enormously powerful companies can bury their smaller
domain of human creativity," says
powerful, opponents in a tidal wave of expensive liti-
Fred Warshofsky, author of The Paten! gation," says Fred Warshofsky, These legal

Wsrs. "That creativity, in the form of ideas, battles may create what Warshofsky calls
innovations, and inventions, has replaced "intellectual property cartels," where behe-
gold, colonies, and raw materials as the moths like Microsoft and Intel erect interlock-
new wealth of nations." Advances in bio- ing hardware-software monopolies reminis-
technology as well as in software devel- cent of AT&T's hammerlock on telecom-
opment, in computer technology, and in ttie munications prior to the breakup of Ma Bell,

creation of the information superhighway As we construct the scaffolding of the

are testing the limits of our intellectual prop- information superhighway which will have
erty laws, which govern patents, copy- the capacity to transmit mountains of data
rights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Ttiese at gigabit speeds government policymakers,
rules determine when an idea is so novel consumer watchdogs, telecommunications
that it is patentable, and provide legal industry officials, creative people^artists,
mechanisms for collecting the profits gen- writers, musicians and even librarians are

erated by this creative capital. "Intellectual attempting to formulate guidelines to deter-

property is a hot topic right now because mine who owns all those digitized bits of in-

it's part and parcel of the second industrial formation. Their debates echo controversies
revolution we're going through," says Bruce that have split scientists into warring camps
A, Lehman, U.S. Commissioner of Patents over patenting biotechnology products and
and Trademarks. "Property has always DNA, the very essence ofv
been the essence of capitalism. The only life. And the outcome of?

difference is property is changing from tan- these seemingly arcane

gible to intangible. Today, the only wealth disputes may well decide^
there is in the world is the wealth that what the world will be like ir

comes from the human mind." In recogni- the next millennium.

tion of this, provisions for safeguards for in- This paradigm shift has itsl
Can our tellectual property rights became a linchpin roots in a 1980 Supreme C
of U.S. endorsement of the General Agree- decision that changed patent I
current legal ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). law in the same way that Roe v.
system Bui there's growing concern that the in- Wade forever altered the abor-

keep pace credibly swill pace of technological devel- tion debate. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme
opment is fast outdistancing our delicately Court agreed that scientific discoveries
with all balanced legal system's ability to protect were indeed inventions, and that new life

and inventors, to give in- forms can be patented. Specifically, the

the rapid ad- the rights of artists
dustry an incentive for innovation through Court ruled General Electnc was entitled to

vances in patent protection, and, at the same time, to own a new strain of bacleha devised in its

safeguard the public interest. The rapid New York labs to gobble up oil spills. It is

technology? proliferation of technology has become an ironic that only one vote changed the
unstoppable runaway train, and critics fear course of history, but this landmark ruling

we're hurtling at warp speed into a legal paved the way for patent protection for ge-
abyss. And it seems that the minute one netic engineering and allowed the bur-
problem gets resolved, a dozen more crop geoning biotech industry to exploit the
up. No wonder lyricist Hal David ("Promises, staggering commercial potential in the cre-
Promises"} lamented that artists have be- ation of new life forms,
come "road kill on the information highway" Jeremy Rifkin, head of the Foundation
because they have no protection against on Economic Trends and a critic of the
cyberthieves who appropriate their work. abuse and misuse of genetic engineehng,
What's equally disturbing is that as the was incensed. "Now, in the eyes of the law.
a living creature is no different than a
toaster oven or a computer," he re-
called, in a recent interview. He re-
members predicting tfiat "this decision
w\\\ open up tlie floodgates for the
commercialization of the gene pool,
vifhich inevitably leads to the patenting
of life itself."
At the time, Rifkin sounded like a rag-
ing fanatic. But he proved prophetic. A
subsequent 1987 Supreme Court ruling
extended patent protection to geneti-
cally altered animals. Then, in August
1993, the Rural Advancement Founda-
tion International (RAFl) discovered the
U.S. government had filed a patent on
the cell line, which contains our entire
genetic code, of an Indian woman from
Panama who is stricken with leukemia.
This Guayami woman, like others
her tribe, carries a unique virus and an-
tibodies that may be useful in combat-
ing AIDS and leukemia. There's also a
community in Africa's Sudan that has a
genetic resistance to malaria; inhabi-
tants of Limone, Italy, harbor a gene
that protects against heart disease;
and some prostitutes in Nairobi may be
immune
genetic
to HIV,
traits
Each of these unique
has obvious commercial
value. But the idea of patenting these
cell lines, which contain human DMA,
the key to life itself, kicks up a hornet's
nest of legal and ethical issues not
the least of which is the specter of
Americans plundenng the DNA of Third
World people. "The human genome is
the common heritage of our species."
says Jonathan King, a biology profes-
sor at MIT, "The notion of granting
patents on human cell lines is compa-
rable to a corporation owning the oxy-
gen in the air. We have numerous
examples in history of what happens
when you allow humans to be com-
moditiesit's called slavery."
The patent application for the
Guayami woman was dropped after
strenuous protests by Panamanian
cials But that didn't stop other U.S.
government agencies from filing similar
patents on ceil lines from people in
Papua New Guinea and the Solomon
Islands, They think the controversy
utternonsense. "This sensational talk
about [using this technology] to clone
human beings who will live their lives in
servitude is garbage," counters Patent
Commissioner Bruce Lehman. "We're
talking about a technology that creates
a biological invention and patents are
simply a commercial mechanism for peo-
ple to get paid for their innovations."
The 1980 Supreme Court ruling-
dubbed the Ghakrabarty decision after
the General Electric scientist who con-
cocted the oil-eating microbe was
probably inevitable, however, given the
scientific revolution that had
in 1972. That's when Herbert Boyer of
the University of California at San Fran-
cisco and Stanford's Stanley Cohen,
while wolfing down corned beef sand-
wiches on the patio of a Waikiki deli-
catessen, figured out a way of plucking
a gene from one organism and patch-
ing it into the DNA of another.
brid organism they created would then
churn out the substance ordered up by
the implanted gene.
Gene splicing, as this technique
came to be known, was the first funda-
mentally new drug-making approach in
decades, and equipped scientists with
it
the tools to mine the world's best phar-
macopoeia for combating disease; the
human immune system. Now drugs
in could be devised from bodily chemi-
cals precisely targeted therapeutics
that were the Holy Grail of medicine.
Stanford University officials con-
vinced Stanley Cohen to apply for a
patent for this technique. Cohen and
Boyer waived their own rights to royal-
ties from the invention, which has since
Science
process. When is a discovery such a
quantum
it qualifies as
generated more than $20 million in roy-
alties to Stanford and UC-San Fran-
cisco, but their fellow scientists were
indignant. Hundreds of researchers
working at dozens of institutions over
three decades had contributed
body of knowledge that led to this dis-
covery For two institutions to claim all
the credit, not to mention millions in
royalties, was
unconscionable.
offi- This has been the crux of many
biotech patent disputes ever since.
Science is an incremental process,
with each advance built upon the
bricks of the last. So when is a discov-
is ery such a quantum leap forward that
qualifies as a patentable invention?
That was the central issue in the more
recent skirmish between DuPont and
Cetus over the rights to Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR), Devised by
Kary Ivlullis while he worked at Cetus,
PCR is a simple process to amplify
even the tiniest bits of DNA. This tech-
nique revolutionized genetic research,
spawned a billion-dollar industry,
earned Mullis a Nobel prize, and was a
source of much debate and contention
in the recent 0. J. Simpson
DuPont's challenge to Cetus's
its genesis patent was based on papers published
in the early 1970s by IMobel laureate
Har Gobind Khorana, who was then at
W\\l, which discussed possible meth-
ods of synthesizing multiple copies of
small strands of DNA, "Cetus' con-
tention was Mullis look elements that
already existed in biology like the poly-
The hy- merase enzyme that can copy DNA,
and saw that they could be turned into
a powerful new tool lo exponentially
amplify DNA," explains Paul Rabinow,
a University of California at Berkeley
anthropologist and author of an up-
coming book on PCR's history
U.S. patent law rejects patent
claims a description of the invention
if
was published more than one year be-
fore the patent application was filed. If
the court held that Khorana 's work did,
in fact, outline a method for using an
enzyme to amplify DNA, that would
mean the idea for PCR was in the pub-
lic domain. But when Ivlullis took the
stand in the 1991 court battle, jurors
were enthralled by the folksy Southern-
bred scientist, as he spun out the tale
is an incremental
leap forward that
a patentable invention?
of how the concept behind PCR came
to him in a blinding flash during a mid-
night drive up the northern California
coast in the spring of 1983, He con-
vinced the six-member panel that PCR
to the was indeed the product of his and
only hisfevered imagination.
Kary Mullis's creation of the PCR
technique was obviously a conceptual
breakthrough. But in other instances,
how key a an individual scientist
role
has played in unearthing something
new is not quite so clear-cut. That
question was at the heart of the contro-
versy that erupted in 1991 when the
it National Institutes of Health applied for
patents on nearly 3,000 gene frag-
ments discovered in the labs of one of
its biochemists, J. Craig Venter, who
had devised an ultrafast, automated
method of gene sequencing. "There
was a mother lode of information, some
part of which will have phenomenal
commercial potential," explains Reid
Adier. aWashington attorney who was
then head of the NIH's Office of Tech-
nology Transfer. "We wanted to keep
options open because no one had
Inal. thought about how to best transfer this
PCR technology. Once data is published, it


mission of copyrighted work should be
considered infringement. But critics
contend this sweeping mandate is
based on obsolete concepts of intel-
iectuai property
where originai works
likebooKs, films, records, and paint-
ings could be contained in a neat
package that don't reflect twenty-first
century realities. They also believe
radically tilts the balance of power in
riding." In the future, developing na- lieve is a prerequisite to modernizing
tions may become electronichavens in their economy. At stake was nearly S3
cyberspace for intellectual property billionworth of sales American compa-
plunderers, a Cayman Islands for data nies lost each year because of the theft
thieves akin to what author Bruce Ster- of intellectual property in China, where
ling envisioned in his futuristic caution- a thriving black market did a brisk busi-
ary tale. Islands in the Net. ness in pirated U.S. goods ranging
"That's why it's so important to get a from CDs, laser disks, video games,
this global consensus," says Pamela movies, and software to counterfeit
Samuelson, a professor of law at the copies of jackets bearing the names of

favor of the publishers, and that Dra-
conian controls on electronic dissemi-
nation of information could turn millions
of E-mail users into criminals, "The re-
port assumes increasing enforce-
ttiat
ment will protect copyright on the Net,"
says fi/like Godwin, staff counsel for the
Electronic Frontiers Foundation, a civil
liberties group launctied by Lotus
founder Mitcli Kapor, "But the last thing
we want is a law that felonizes what
people are doing in their living rooms."
Adds Prudence S. Adier, assistant ex-
ecutive director of ttie Association of
Researcti Libraries, "We're trying to de-
velop some alternative cost recovery
schemes" aside from the pay per use
of copyright "that don't interfere with
public access."
University of Pittsburgh Law School, "It
SJoesn't make any sense to try to solve
problems domestically everyone can
if
log on to off-shore sites " In fact, provi-
sions in GATT are designed to circum-
vent situations like this. The 1 16 nations
in the trade pact have agreed to uni-
form rules regarding protection of
patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and
trademarks in all fields of technology
ranging from electronics and informa-
tiontechnologies to biotechnology and
pharmaceuticals. Poachers will be hit
with stringent sanctions.
An eleventh-hour intellectual prop-
erty agreement reached between the
United States and China in February
1995 narrowly averted an all-out trade
war. American officials were ready to
professional sports teams.
But while the Clinton administration
boasted about its great victory with the
recalcitrant Chinese, many phvately
wonder how vigorously the Beijing gov-
ernment will pursue violators.
Indeed, the world may be getting
wired, but the law lags far behind the
technology It may be several years be-
fore we understand how to devise sen-
sible mechanisms for protecting the
fruits ofour imagination. "It's still the
Wild, Wild West on the electronic fron-
tier,"observes Burk. with bandits
lurking on highway shoulders and cy-
bershehffs dispensing vigilante justice.
But one thing is certain: With brain
power becoming such a coveted cur-
rency, the twenty-first century will wit-

It may be tough to enforce stricter impose exorbitant tariffs on Chinese ness the real revenge of the "nerds"
rules in the electronic realm, though. imports and block China's admittance and Nohei laureates may finally
Some music industry trade groups like to the newly formed World Trade Orga- command bigger bucks than NFL run-
ASCAP and BMI routinely deploy spies nization, which Beijing bureaucrats be- ning backs. DO
to discos, radio stations, and even aer-
obics studios, to ensure song royalties
are paid. And Microsoft and other soft-
ware makers, says Fred Warshofsky,
"have formed alliances such as the
Software Publistier's Association (SPA)
and the Business Software Alliance
(BSA) that have over the past several
years made a number of highly publi-
cized raids on companies looking for il-
legal copies of computer programs,"
But dispatching cytiercops to patrol
the electronic frontier for copyright vio-
lators seems wildly impractical How
do you police the millions of computer
users who can make instantaneous
copies with a keystroke? A better solu-
tion might be along the lines of the
compromise reached by VCR-makers
and movie producers, who recognized
the impossibility of halting illicit taping.
VCR firms pay into a royalty pool
these payments are added in to the
VCRs' costwhich is distributed to the
motion picture producers association.
What's more, emerging nations in
the Pacific Rim like Korea, Malaysia,
Singapore, and Taiwan and in Latin
American countries such as Brazil and
Argentina, don't recognize discoveries
or inventions as private property. In-
stead, they've beefed up their
economies by copying, adapting, or
simply stealing technology in govern-
ment-sanctioned ripoffs called "free
 BATTELLE'S BEST GUESSES
[o one future inevitable," bus, Ohio. His clients, ranking than Battelle^ Since 1929, the

N
is

Isays Stephen Millett, among the world's largest cor- world's largest n(.inpr(:>lit re-

whose job it is to forecast ihe porations, prcter latures that are search
lalT with 8,000 techni-

future. "Many different futures prosperous,- therefore, they're cal workers in ntiices around

are possible at any given mo- hungiy for tomorrow's strate the world has been a trading

ment. But if you recognize gies today- To accommodate post of ideas on the frontier

dominant trends, you can create them, I I of Battel Ic's senior re-

strategics that lead you toward -.(-Lirchers and managers gath-

the future you prefer." Millett is rici.i recently to name the 10

head of technolog\' intelligence nvM mlkicntial technologies of

and management at Battelle the next decade.

Memorial Institute in Colum- Who should know better

BEHMETT DAVISS
SANBRa
 a breadth of expertise and a sensitivity

towhat works and doesr\'l work in the

real worldno university has. Our scien-
and engineers have oeen in their
tists

a long time," he explains. 'They

fields for
have 3 sense ol technical dynamics
and evolution within their specialties,
v^6 they can integrate lots of trends."
In three hours of freewheeling con-
,'>:-! sation, the group's members named
.'ver 40 technologies they expect will

.voigh heavily in our collective future.

inen Miltetl a vote. Each ex-
called (or
pen picked lie or she
the eight areas
believed to be the most influential and
assigned each choice a point value
from 8 to 1. The breakthrough earning
:"e most points was declared the one
;-.s:telle's technology mavens believe
future more distinctly

The list sports a

where present meets mix ot technolo-
tulijre. Baitelle scien- gies. Some are
tists taught the Man- sexy: some se-
hattan Pfoiecl how to date There are
refine urarrium duting tew surprises. The
World War II. They pio- ;ist's value is not in

neered alloys used in its power to enter-

the first practical jel tain or amaze, but

ertgines. When inven- in the power of
torChester Carlson found no other those who formu-
backers for ^j8 electrostatic copying lated it to separate
machine, BaittSse spent 16 years and the significant from
iiundreds of thousands of dollars the frivolous. "Some
working with the Haloid Corporation people look ai the

to realize the machine's commercial and say these

list

DOtenlial. Not long after. Haloid technologies are

changed its name to Xerox. More re- around now," Millett acknowledges.
cently, Battetle researchers devised "That's true Technologies making
new ways to neuiralize loxic waste, a difference in our lives 10 years
launched a major initiative to de- from now have lo be around now.
velop intetligeni roads, and designed Some people wilt tell you for all the

a primitive nanocomputer from poly- |i^ cutting-edge products emerging

mer molecules. They even invented \- today, the technologies showed
*"
the plastic harness that holds six- up at least 30 years
packs together. ago Some would say
ARer earning a doctorate in history at Ohic 50. Our purpose was
Slate University, Milieu began honing his iudg^ not lo uncover what
ment and experience as an instroclor at the' will be novel. It was

U.S- Air Force Institute of Technology. Throwrr- to determine what

tn with scientists
technologists do
and engineers.
forecasting
"I watchecf^
and decided it was! "^;^^yr. wilt be important."

Ouickly. though,
far too interesting
alone," He came
and lufi to

to Batlelle in
be left to iherh;
1979 where n; a i's*;
the sllver-thalched
forecaster waves
specializes in what he calls "applied history, away any hir
>
which means learning to project the lessons from cwfe^^ftocl-i'^' ^i!)ogm5i:'''"FS6f^9''ndth"lng Inevitable about this list. There's
les. htsiorical analogies, and trend analysis into the future." nothing inevitatile about anyone's list.We're saying this is a
To pick technology's top 10, Millett selected fellow experts future that has yet lo be built but is entirely possible."
holding among them more than two centunas of experience In fact. Ihe very structure of technological research is

in fields ranging from electrical engineering and commer- shifting. As Millett explains, "During the 45 years of the Cold
cial energy systems, to physiology and genetics. "We have War, the federal government was the largest single player
in a range of technological research. for some folks. The bad news is the ones The second most influential technol-

But in the last six years the government who'll need it most are those for whom ogy on the list is super materials,

has been going out of the research
business in a big way. This shifting ol
research to private industry results in
less emphasis on basic research and a
greater focus on practical problem-
solving As industry becomes more in-
is becoming
volved, a greater proportion
overtlymore commercially on en ted,"
So what is the proper role for gov-
ernment in technology research? "De-
veloping technology for public
infrastructure in the broadest sense,
such as intelligent highways interac-
tive roads that exchange data with
the price will be astronomical. As Has-
sler explained, "The financial impact on
society could be tremendous.
instances already exist of people hav-
ing insurance problems because of ge-
netic indicators. These people could
become part of a genetic underclass. If
commercial companies refuse to insure
people showing a strong likelihood of
developing a particular condition, we
might have to adopt some form of gov-
ernment health care funding. If pnvate
industry can't figure out an equitable
way to blend higher and lower risks,
specifically matrix materials and mole-
cular composites. Chemist Dr Vince
Isolated McGinniss explains the concept, "In
matrix materials, manufactured fibers
carbon, glass, silicon carbide, or some
high-strength metal
are embedded in
a flowable ceramic or metal. Iviatrix ma-
terials have tremendous strength, can
stand up to intense heat, and are light-
weight. The Air Force, the motivator be-
hind matrix maiehals. is testing them in
parts of jet engines, and other applica-
tions. One Japanese car company has
used matrix materials to reinforce cylinder

smart cars," Millett replies, "There's re-
search in embedding sensors in con-
crete to read stresses continually in
bridges Any lime government builds a
transportation or communication link
the government becomes the insurer of wall linings. Matrix materials are finding
last resort, and the only fair way to do it theirway into a few products now, and
might be for everyone to pool the cost. we'llsee much more of them in the next
"There are also indications that few years. Today the process of manu-
mental abilities, artistic talents, or phys- facturing matrix materials in quantity is

it's a big deal. The interstate highway ical skills might be genetically influ- still complex. Fibers thrown into a resin
system and the Internet were govern- enced. One always wonders if the next aren't happy So you have to treat them
ment projects, and both changed the Einstein is living inan obscure place with special linking agents to hold them
nature of society. But government in- where he or she won't get the opportu- in the flowable matrix matenal. That in-

volvement in research is hkely to be nity to become the new Einstein terface is where the problems show
smaller than in the past," Should we devise a way to genetically up stress or water comes in and breaks
In spite of this, Battelle named a
government project the mapping of
the human genome as the most im-
We can laugh and joke about
portant strategic technology of the
coming decade. When asked about the flip-up communicator on Star Trek,
this choice, Millett responded: 'The
mapping itself will have no intrinsic
commercial value. The government is
but technology seems to be
underwriting this research as a part of
the national health infrastructure, and moving very strongly in that direction.
the results will be readily available to
everyone. But applying this information identify talent and direct people into the fiber Because strength in matrix
to createways to identify genetic mark- particular pursuits to which they're ge- materials comes almost entirely from
ers within an individual has potentially netically suited instead of adhering to fiber and very little from surrounding
enormous commercial applications. the ethic that in the United States you material, you lose all the strength,"
Knowledge of the genome is the key to can become whatever you want? If Molecular composites, however, are
curing and eventually eradicating hun- we're lucky we won't map the genome more durable, In fact, according to
dreds of diseases, perhaps even slow- untilwe've figured out how to settle McGinniss, "they're the next generation
ing the aging process itself," these issues, but technology always ol engineered materials. With matrix
According to Dr. Craig Hassler, a seems to move faster than politics," materials, we make two separate things
physiologist, the mapping project is at After counseling, the next applica- and put them together In molecular
the point now that the microprocessor tion of genome technology will be diag- composites, we design everything
industry was in 1982 when people nostic techniques. "We're constantly the rigid, fiber-like segments, the flexible

were just beginning to understand
what "microprocessor" meant. "There
are already sterling examples of dis-
eases we can identify by their genetic
signatures," states Hassler. "That list
will grow steadily and in 10 years peo-
ple will see practical results. Genetic
counseling initially will be probabilis-
tic telling someone they have this
great a chance of getting a particular
disease by a particular age. As we get
better at understanding what gene
markers mean, we'll be able to give in-
creasingly accurate predictions,"
But ethicisls and policymakers have
long worried about the social impacts
of the power The good news
to predict.
is medical insurance will be very cheap
discovering new substances body"
says Hassler. "By knowing your level o
a particular enzyme or other biochemt
cal. doctors will be able to diagnose a
particular condition. Eventually, from a
blood or skin sample a doctor could
tell you which diseases you're most
likely to get. There's no reason why we
couldn't see at-home diagnostic kits,
although probably not by 2006.
"A third area is genetic therapy and
pharmaceuticals, which will evolve
more slowly" continues Hassler "The
process of infusing people with new
genetic matenal is barely in its infancy,
so much of the work that needs to be
done will just be getting under way be-
tween now and 2006."
in the material into one molecule. Polyethyl-
ene is like that. Low molecular-weight
polyethylene is an oil, a little higher
weight gives you paraffin waxes; higher
still and you have Baggies. Going
higher, you get crystalline materials
with fiber stronger than steel. That's
what racing sails are made of.
"Because a molecular composite is
joined to itself, molecule by molecule,
making something becomes a matter
of arranging the microstructure. Using
the computer to model the structure of
specific molecules, we see how they
can be joined to other molecules. As
recently as three years ago, when a
client asked us to engineer a new ma-
terial, we'd head for the lab. Now we
as television is allotted now. But Ihe send the image to your digital HDTV for products in two or three years, but
FCC has ruled HDTV has to fit in the abetter look." those early products will be expensive.

same airspace now occupied by con- "Most of us would love an affordable You can't receive HDTV signals on the
ventional TV signals. To meet that re- motion-picture screen in our house," TV set you have now. Rather than sud-
quirement, researchers have developed adds Millett. "That alone would be a denly switch from one technology to
a compression technique that cuts multibillion-dollar HDTV industry. But the other, for some time both regular
those billion bits by a factor of 60, this technology also can have an enor- signals and HDTV will be broadcast.
Then, by modifying hardware, they've mous impact on the quality of big- The shift from one kind of TV set to the
compressed the signal enough more to screen movies or any display of other will be gradual. But by 2006,
meet the FCC's mandate, enormous size, or great detail. Imagine HDTV will be as common as CD play-
"This is an incredibly oversimplified all your family photos preserved forever ers and home computers are now,"
explanation," Ridgway states, "but if I in perfect clarity on one CD," Fifth on the Top Ten list is the minia-
transmit a picture of something that When will consumers benefit from turization of electronics. How small is

doesn't move say, a flower only I this new format? Ridgway
calculates small? As small as "a wireless, hand-
have to send it once. If send a picture
I that "once the FCC defines the stan- held, interactive computer accessing
in which some parts are moving, only I dard set of technical specifications and transmitting data at a distance,"
have to send the picture parts that are HDTV will be based on, companies in responds Millett. "We're getting close
changing. Things in a television picture the Grand Alliance aren't going to sit day when we can combine voice
to the
usually move slowly enough that not around. We'll see the first consumer 1
ON PAGE ^ 16

every point in every picture has to

change every microsecond. In tests,
companies are now proving even
things like sporting events and car
races can be transmitted by HDTV,"
Ridgway has called HDTV "a break-
through for American manufacturers. It
gives the United States ihe chance to
Dont Decide Now,
become the world's leading manufac-
turer of electronics again,"he believes.
"More than 90 percent of U,S, homes
have TV; only 30 percent have comput-
ers. The United States continues to be
the world leader in computers and soft-
ware, and when you're talking about
digital HDTV, you're talking computer
and software technology"
But many believe the Japanese
have already left the United States be-
hind in high-definition video. "The
Japanese were among the first to pro-
duce a high-definition TV system, but
they made the decision early on to go
witti analog technology
the same as
today's TVs are based on," responds NqUhc
ilEnl^
Ridgway "A group of U,S, companies,
known as the Grand Alliance [including
hanj to imagine, idjusts automaticaSy. Used
AT&T, Zenith, General Instruments, It's
Jsis pruvE that sleepers in hospitals, doclors find that the
Philips of North America, and others], actually

banded together in May 1993 to pur- and turn 75% less on llie innovaliw Tempui-Pedic Swedish Mattress

Tm^wr-PedlcSwedistiMallress', pressure relief lo ease

sue a digital approach. Digital technol-
bed sores.
ogy won out in FCC trials, and the Now, jou can prove it to yourself ty tijUig 'lything from haii pain \o

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 The moon

Bright

arrows
slips and shines

wrinl^led mirror before the prow,

and from the northern

Companions shoot glancing

of light
sl<y

along the water.

in the

the

In
w
the stern of the boat the polesman

stands in the watchful solemnity of

his task. His movements as he

poles and steers the boat are slow,

certain, august.

Fiction by Ursula
The long, low

K. Le Guin ^

Painting by Wendell Minor

channelboat slides on the black

water as silently as the reflection it

pursues, A few dark figures huddle

in it. One dark figure lies full length

on the halfdeck, arms at his sides,

closed eyes unseeing that other

moon slipping and shining through

wisps of fog in the luminous blue

night sky. The Husbandman of

Sandry is coming home from war.

They had been waiting for him on Sandry Island ever since last spring, wiien
he went with seven men, following the messengers who came to raise the
Queen's army In midsummer four of the men of Sandry brought back the
news that he was wounded and was lying in the care of the Queen's own
physician. They told of his great valor in battle, and told of their own prowess

too, and how they had won the war. Since then there had been no news.
With him now in the channelboat were Itie three com- When the stretcherbearers came out again, half the
panions who had stayed with him, and a physician sent people of Sandry were in the courtyard waiting to hear their

by the Queen, an assistant to her own doctor. This man, news. Most of all they looked to old Pask when he came
an active, slender person in his forties, cramped by the out, and he looked at them all. He was a big, slow man,
long night's travel, was quick to leap ashore when the girthed like an oak, with a stiff face set in deep lines. "Will

boat slid silently up along the stone quay of Sandry Farm. he live?" a woman ventured. Pask continued looking them
While the boatmen and the others busied themselves all over until he chose to speak. "We'll plant him," he said,

making the boat fast and lifting the stretcher and its bur- "Ah, ah!" the woman cried, and a groan and sigh went
den up from the boat to the quay, the doctor went on up among them all.

io the house. Approaching the island, as the sky imper- "And our grandchildren's children will know his name,"
ceptibly lightened from night-blue to colorless pallor, he said Dyadi, Pask's wife, bosoming through the crowd to

had seen the spires of windmills, the crowns of trees, and her husband. "Hello, old man."
the roofs of the house, all in black silhouette, standing very "Hello, old woman," Pask said They eyed each other
high after the miles of endlessly level reedbeds and wa- from an equal height.
terchannels. "Hello, the people!" he called out as he en- "Still walking, are you?" she said,

tered the courtyard, "Wake up! Sandry has come home!" "How else get back where I belong?" Pask said. His
The kitchen was astir already. Lights sprang up else- mouth was too set in a straight line to smile, but his eyes
where in the big house. The doctor heard voices, doors, glinted a little.

A stableboy came vaulting out of the loft where he had "Took your time doing it. Come on, old man. You must
slept, a dog barked and barked its tardy warning, people be perishing." They strode off side by side toward the
began to come out of the housedoor. As the stretcher lane that led to the saddlery and paddocks. The court-

was borne into the courtyard, the Farmwife came hurrying yard buzzed on, all in low-voiced groups around the
out, wrapped in a green cloak that hid her nightdress, her other two returned men, getting and giving the news of

hair loose, her feet bare on the stones. She ran to the the wars, the city, the marsh isles, the farm.
stretcher as ihey set it down. "Farre, Farre," she said, Indoors, in the beautiful high shadowy room where
kneeling, bending over the still figure. No one spoke or Farre now lay in the bed still warm from his wife's sleep,

moved in that moment. "He is dead," she said in a whis- the physician stood by the bedside, as grave, intent,

per, drawing back. careful as the polesman had stood in the stern of the
"He is alive," the doctor said. And the oldest of the lit- channelboat. He watched the wounded man, his fingers

terbearers, Pask the saddler, said in his rumbling bass, on the pulse. The room was perfectly still.

"He lives, Makali-dem. But the wound was deep." The woman stood at the foot of the bed, and
The doctor looked with pity and respect presently he turned to her and gave a
al the Farmwife, at her bare feet and quiet nod that said. Very well, as well
her clear, bewildered eyes, "Dema," can be expected.
he said, "let us bring "He seems scarcely to

him in to the warmth." breathe," she whispered.

"Yes, yes," she said, Her eyes looked large in her face
rising and running ahead to prepare. knotted and clenched with anxiety.

"He's breathing," the escort assured
her. "Slow and deep. Dema, my name
js Hamid, assistant to the Queen's
physician, Dr. Saker. Her majesty and
the Doctor, who had your husband in
his care, desired mehim to come
and slay here as long as am needed, I
to give what care can, Her majesty
I
charged me to tell you that she
grateful for his sacrifice, that
ors his courage in her service. She will
do what may be done to prove that
gratitude and to show that honor. And
still she bade me tell you that whatever
may be done will fall short of his due,"
"Thank you," said the Farmwife, per-
haps only partly understanding, gaiing
only at the set, still face on the pillow.
She was trembling a little,
"You're cold, dema," Hamid said
gently and respectfully "You should get
dressed."
he warm enough? Was he chilled,
in
"Is
the boat? can have the fire laid
I
"No. He's warm enough. It's you
speak of, dema."
She glanced at him a little wildly as
if seeing him that moment. "Yes," she
said. "Thank you,"
"I'll come back in a little while," he
said, laid his hand on his heart, and
quietly went out, closing the massive
door behind him.
He went across to the kitchen wing
and demanded food and drink for a
starving man, a thirsty man leg-
cramped from crouching in
boatall night. He was notshy, and was
used to the authority of his calling. It
had been a long journey overland from
the city, and then poling through the
marshes, with Broad Isle the only hos-
pitable piace to stop among the end-
less channels, and the sun beating
down all day, and then the long dream-
like discomfod of the night.
much of his hunger and travail to
amuse his hosts and to divert them,
too, from asking questions about how
the Husbandman did and would do.
He did not want to tell them more than
the man's wife knew.
But they, discreet or knowing or re-
spectful,asked no direct questions of
him. Though their concern for Farre
was plain, they asked only, by various
indirections, he was sure lo live, and
if
seemed satisfied by that assurance. In
some faces Hamid thought he saw a
glimpse of something beyond satisfac-
tion: a brooding acceptance in one; an
almost conniving intelligence in an-
other. One young fellow blurted out,
"Then will he be" and shut his mouth,
under the joined stares of five or six
older people. They were a trapmouthed
lot, the Sandry Islanders. AH that were
not actively young looked old:
"
weatherbeaten, brown skin wrinkled
and silvery hands gnarled, hair thick,
coarse, and dry. Only their eyes were
quick, observant. And some of them
had eyes of an unusual color, like
with amber; Pask, his wife Dyadi, and sev-
eral others, as well as Farre himself.
The first time Hamid had seen Farre,
before the coma deepened, he had
is
she hon- been struck by the strong features and
those lighl, clear eyes. They all spoke a
strong dialect, but Hamid had grown
up not far inland from the marshes, and
anyhow had an ear for dialects. By the
end of his large and satisfying break-
fast he was glottal-stopping with the
best of them.
He returned to the great
with a well-loaded tray As he had ex-
pected, the Farmwife, dressed and
shod, was sitting close beside the bed,
her hand lying lightly on her husband's
hand. She looked up at Hamid politely
but as an intruder, please be quiet,
I make him be well
don't interrupt us,
and go away Hamid had no par-
. . .
eye for beauty in women, per-
ticular
She was fully alive. She was
and powerful
as unconsciously splendid.
a damned dered if
haps having seen beauty too often at
shod a distance, where dissolves;
too it
but he responded to a woman's health,
to the firm sweet flesh, the quiver and
vigor of full life. And she was fully alive.
She was as tender and powerful as a
red-deer doe, as unconsciously splen-
He made did. He wondered if there were fawns,
and then saw the child standing be-
hind her chair. The room, its shutters
closed, was all shadow with a spatter
and dappling of broken light across the
islands of heavy furniture, the foot-
board of the bed, the folds of the cov-
the child's face and dark eyes.
erlet,
"Hamid-dem," the Farmwife said
despite her absorption in her husband
she had caught his name, then, with the
desperate keen hearing of the sickroom,
where every word carries hope or
doom"! still cannot see him breathe."
"Lay your ear against his chest," he
said, in a tone deliberately louder than
her whisper. "You'll hear the heart beat,
and feel the lungs expand. Though
slowly, as said. Dema,
I brought this
I
for you. Now you'll sit here, see, at this
table. A little more light, a shutter open,
so. won't disturb him, not at
It
seamed. is good. You are to sit here
breakfast. Along with your daughter,
who must be hungry, too."
She introduced the child, Idi, a girl
of five or six, who clapped her hand on
her heart and whispered "Give-you-
good-day-dema" all in one glottal-
stopped word before she shrank back
behind her mother
It is pleasant to be a physician and be
obeyed, Hamid reflected, as the Farm-
wife and her child, large and little im-
ages of each other in Iheir shirts and
full trousers and silken braided hair, sat
at the table where he had put the tray
down and meekly ate the breakfast he
had broughl. He was charmed to see
that between them they left not a crumb.
bedroom When Makali rose her face had lost
the knotted look, and her dark eyes,
though still large and still concerned,
were tranquil. She has a peaceful
heart, he thought. At the same moment
his physician's eye caught the signs;
she was pregnant, probably about
three months along. She whispered to
the child, who trotted away She came
back to the chair at the bedside, which
as tender
as a red-deer doe,
And he won-
there were fawns.
he had already relinquished.
"I am going to examine and dress
his wound," Hamid said. "Will you
watch, dema, or come back?"
"Watch," she said.
"Good," he said. Taking off hts coat,
he asked her to have hot water sent in
from the kitchen.
"We have it piped," she said, and
went to a door in the farthest shadowy
corner. He had not expected such an
amenity. Yet he knew that some of
these island farms were very ancient
places of civilization, drawing tor their
comfort and provision on inexhaustible
sun, wind, and tide, settled in a way of
life as immemorial as that of their plow-
lands and pastures, as full and secure.
Not the show-wealth of the city, but the
deep richness of the land, was in the
steaming pitcher she brought him, and
in the woman who brought if.
"You don't need it boiling?" she
asked, and he said, "This is what want," I
She was quick and steady, relieved
to have a duty, to be of use. When he
bared the great sword-wound across
her husband's abdomen he glanced
all. Light up at her to see how she took Com- it.
and eat pressed lips, a steady gaze.
 "This," he said, his fingers above
the long, dark, unhealed gash, "looks
the worst; but this, here,
Thaiis superficial, a mere slash as the
sword withdrew But here, it went in,
and deep." He probed the wound.
There was no shrinking or quiver in the
man's body; he lay insensible, "The
sword withdrew," Hamid went on, "as
the swordsman died. Your husband
killed him even as he struck. And took
the sword from him. When his men
came around him he was holding it in
his left hand and his own sword in his
right, though he could not rise from his
knees. . Both those swords came
. .
here with us, There, you see?
, .
. He ordered her to walk daily, to be two
That was a deep thrust. And a wide
blade. That was nearly a deathblow.
But not quite, not quite. Though to be
sure, (t look its loll." He looked up al
her openly hoping she would meet his
eyes, hoping lo receive from her the
glance of acceptance, intelligence,
recognition that he had seen in this
face and that among Sandry's people.
But her eyes were on the purple
His eyes never opened.
she said, in the night, he had
moved a little. Hamid had not seen him
make any movement for days.
and livid wound, and her face was
simply intent.
"Was it wise to move him, carry him
so far?" she asked, not questioning his
judgment, but in wonder,
"The Doctor said would do him no it
harm," Hamid said. "And it has done
none. The fever is gone, as it has been
for nine days now," She nodded, for
she had tell how cool Farre's skin was.
"The inflammation of the wound is, if
anything, less than it was two days
ago. The pulse and breath are strong
and steady This was the place for him
to be, dema,"
"Yes," she said, "Thank you. Thank
you, Hamid-dem. Her clear eyes
looked into his for a moment before re-
turning to the wound, the motionless,
muscular body, the silent face, the
closed eyelids.
Surely Hamid thought, surely if it
were true she'd know it! She couldn't
have married the man not knowing! But
she says nothing. So it's not true, it's
only a story. But this thought,
. . . in Pask's unwilling and enigmatic hints
which gave him a tremendous relief for
a moment, gave way to another; She
knows and is hiding from the knowl-
edge. Shutting the shadow into the
52 OMNI
locked room. Closing her ears in
theword is spoken.
is the worst. He found he had taken a deep
breath and was holding it. He wished
the Farmwife were older, tougher, that
she loved her farmer less. He wished
he knew what the truth was, and that
he need not be the one to speak it.
But on an utterly unexpected im-
pulse, he spoke: "It is not death," he
said, very low, almost pleading.
She merely nodded, watching.
When he reached for a clean cloth, she
had it ready to his hand.
As a physician, he asked her of her
pregnancy She was well, all was well.
hours out of the sickroom in the open
air He wished he might go with her, for
he liked her and it would have been a
pleasure to walk beside her, watching
her go along tall and lithe and robust.
But she was to leave Farre's side for
if
two hours, he was to replace her there;
that was simply understood. He
obeyed her implicit orders as she
obeyed his explicit ones.
Once or twice,
His own freedom was considerable,
for she spent most of the day in the
sickroom, and there was no use his
being there, too, little use his being
there at all, in fact. Farre needed noth-
ing from him or her or anyone, aside
from the little nourishment he took.
Twice a day with infinite patience, she
contrived to feed him ten or a dozen
sips of Dr. Saker's rich brew of
and herbs and medicines, which
Hamid concocted and strained dally
the kitchen with the cooks' interested
aid. Aside from those two halfhours,
and once a day the bed-jar for a few
drops of urine, there was nothing to be
done. No chafing or sores developed
on Farre's skin. He lay unmoving,
showing no discomfort. His eyes never
opened. Once or twice, she said, in the
night, he had moved a Utile, shud-
dered. Hamid had not seen him make
any movement for days.
Surely if there was any truth in the
old book Dr. Saker had shown him and
of confirmation, fvlakali would know?
But she said never a word, and was il
too late now tor him lo ask. He had lost
his chance. And he could not speak
if
case lo her, he would not go behind her
back, asking the others if there was
any truth in this tale.
Of course there isn't, he told his
conscience, A myth, a rumor, a folktale
of the 'Old Islanders' and the word
. . .
of an ignorant man, a saddler. Su- . . .
perstition! What do see when look at
I I
my patient? A deep coma, A deep,
restorative coma. Unusual, yes, but not
abnormal, not uncanny Perhaps such
a coma, a very long vegetative period
of recovery, common lo these is-
landers, an inbred people, would be
the origin of the myth, much exagger-
ated, made fanciful, . . .
They were a healthy lot, and though
he offered his services he had little to
do once he had reset a boy's badly
splinted arm and scraped out an old
fellow's leg abscesses. Sometimes little
Idi tagged after him. Clearly she
adored her father and missed his com-
pany. She never asked, "Will he get
well," but Hamid had seen her
crouched al the bedside, quite still, her
cheek against Farre's unresponding
hand. Touched by the child's dignity,
Hamid asked her what games she and
her father had played. She though! a
long time before she said, "He would
tell me
what he was doing and some-
limes could help." Evidently she had
I
simply followed Farre In his daily round
of farmwork and management. Hamid
provided only an unsaiisfactory, fhvo-
lous substitute. She would listen to his
tales of the court and city for a while,
not very interested, and scon would
run off to her own small, serious duties.
Hamid grew restive under the burden
of being useless.
He found walking soothed him, and
went almost daily on a favorite circuit;
down to the quay and along the dunes
to the southeast end of the island, from
which he first saw the open sea, free at
meat last of the whispering green levels of
the reedbeds. Then up the steepest
in slope on Sandry, a low hill of worn
granite and sparse earth, for the view
of sea and tidal dams, island fields and
green marshes from its summit, where
a cluster of windmills caught the sea
wind with slender vanes. Then down
the slope past the trees, the Old Grove,
to the farmhouse. There were a couple
of dozen houses in sight from Sandry
Hill, but 'the farmhouse' was the only
one so called, as its owner was called
the Husbandman, or Farmer Sandry or
simply Sandry if he was away from the
island. And nothing would keep an Is-
lander away from his island but his
duty lo Ihe crown. Rooted folk, Hamid
thought wryly standing in the lane near
the Old Grove to look at the trees
Elsewhere on the island, indeed on
all the islands, there were no trees to
speak of. Scrub willows down along
the streams, a few orchards of wind-
dwarfed, straggling apples. But here in
the Grove were great trees, some
mighty trunks, surely hundreds of years
old, and none of them less than eight
or ten times a man's height, They did
not crowd together but grew widely
spaced, each spreading its limbs and
crown broadly, in the spacious aisles
under them grew a few shrubs and
ferns and a thin, soft, pleasant grass.
Their shade was beautiful on these hot
summer days when the sun glared off
the sea and the channels and the sea
wind scarcely stirred the fiery air. But
Hamid did not go under the trees. He
stood in the lane, looking al that shade
under the heavy foliage.
Not far from the lane he could see in
the grove a sunny gap where an old
tree had come down, perishing in a
winter gale maybe a century ago. for
nothing was left of the fallen trunk but a
grassy hummock a lew yards long. No
sapling had sprung up or been planted
to replace the old tree, only a wild rose,
rejoicing in the light, flowered thornily
over the rum of ils stump.
Hamid walked on. gazing ahead al
the house he now knew so well, the
massive slate roofs, the shuttered win-
GREAT MOMENTS
l/espite conjecture, most ornithalojisti
acrce that the probcUe ccuse of the extinction
of the rock-ncstias red-credeJ eahhiit
icht he </<? in pcA to the hire's precai-tous
dow of the room where Makali was sit- me a hand." She went out and returned
ting beside her husband, waiting for with the yardman. Tebra, and with him
him wake.
to Hamid briskly set about the business.
"Makali, Makali," he said under his They got the bed fixed at such a slant
with breath, grieving for her, angry with her, that he had to put a webbing strap
angry with himself, sorry for himself, lis- round Farre's chest to keep him from
sound of her name.
tening to the sliding quite down. He asked Makali for
The room was dark to his still sun- a waterproof sheet or cape. Then,
bedazzled eyes, but he went to his pa- fetching a deep copper basin from the
tient with a certain decisiveness, kitchen, he filled with cold water. He
it
almost abruptness, and turned back spread the sheet of oilskin she had
the sheet. He palpated, auscultated, brought under Farre's legs and feet,
look the pulse. "His breathing has and propped the basin in an over-
been harsh." Makali murmured. turned footstool so that it held steady
"He's dehydrated. Needs water" as he laid Farre's feet in the water.
She rose to fetch the little silver bowl "It must be kept full enough that his
and spoon she used to feed him his soles touch the water, he said to Makali,
'
soup and water, but Hamid shook his "It will keep him cool," she said, ask-
head. The picture in Dr. Baker's ancient Hamid did not answer.
ing, uncertain.
book was vivid in his mind, a woodcut, Her troubled, frightened look en-
showing exactly what must be done raged him. He left the room without
what must be done, that is. one be-
if saying more.
lieved this myth, which he did not, nor When he returned in the evening
did Makali, or she would surely have she said, "His breathing is much easier,"
said something by now! And yet, there No doubt, Hamid thought, auscultat-
was nothing else to be done. Farre's ing, now thai he breathes once a
face was sunken, his hair came loose minute.
at a touch. He was dying, very slowly, "Hamid-dem." she said, "fhere
."
of thirst, is . . . something I noticed. . .
"The bed must be tipped, so that his "Yes."
head is high, his feel low," Hamid said She heard his ironic, hostile tone, as
authonlatively "The easiest way will be he did, Bolh winced. But she was
to take off the footboard Tebra will give started, had begun to speak, could
I N
Just cs the others rejiied thd Dr. Bofd
uiS imposter, the fraudulent plipicicn
discovered thai you do hc^ve to he
hrdn surceon to perform hnin surcery.
SATIRE BY ERIC JAY DECETIS
only go on. see the blind eye exposed, without we care for that? He didn't care and I

"His . ,
," She started again. "It pupil, iris, or white, a polished, feature- didn't care. I didn't believe' I wouldnt
seemed . .
.'"
She drew the sheet down less, brown bead. believe! But I came here Those
farttier, exposing Farre's genjtais. When her indrawn breath was re- trees, the Grove, the older Ireps-
Tine penis lay aimost indistinguish- peated and again repeated in a drag- you've been there, you've seen them
abie from the testicles and the brawn, ging sob, Hamid burst out at last, "But Do you know they have names?" She
grained skin of ttie inner groin, as if it you knew, surely! You knew when you stopped, and the dragging, gasping
had sunk into them, as if ali were re- married him." indrawn sob began again. She look
turning to an indistinguishable unity, a "Knew," said her dreadful indrawn hold ot a chairback and stood racking
featureless soiidJty. voice. It back and forth. "He took mp there
"Yes," Hamid said, expressionless, The hair stood up on Hamid's arms 'That is my grandfather.'" she said in a
stiocked in spite of himself. "The ... the and scalp. He could not look at her. He hoarse, jeering gasp. '"That's Aita, my
process is following . . , what is said to lowered the eyelid, thin and stiff as a mother's grandmother. Doran-dem has
be its course." dry leaf. stood four hundred years,"
She looked at him across her hus- She turned away and walked slowly Her voice failed.
band's body. "But Can't you T across the long room into the shadows. "We don't laugh about it
"
Hamid
He stood silent a while. "It seems "They laugh about it," said the "It IS a tale
said. something thai might
that My information is that in these deep, dry voice he had never heard, be Irue^a mystery. Who they are,

cases a very grave shock to the sys- out of the shadows. "On the land, in the the the ciders, what makes them
. . ,

tem, to the body,"

to find words

he paused, trying
"such as an injury or a
city
They
people laugh about it, don't they
talk about the wooden men, the
change
sent
how happens . . Dr Sake;
.

me here not only to be of use but

ft

great loss, a grief but in this case, an blockheads, the Old Islanders They don't to learn, To verify ... the process
"

injury, an almost fatal wound A laugh about it here. When he married "The process," Makali said
wound that almost certainly would have
me " She turned to face Hamid. step- She came back to the bedside, fan
been fatal, had not it inaugurated ping into the shaft of warm twilight from ing him across it, across the stift hodv
the . . , the process in question, the in- the one unshuttered window so that her the log in the bed,
herited capacity . , , propensity ..." clothing glimmered white. "When Farre "What am carrying here''' she I

She stood still, still gazing straight at of Sandry Farre Older courted me and asked, soft and hoarse, her hands on
him, so that all the big words shrank to married me, on the Broad Isle where I
her belly
nothing in his mouth, He stooped and lived, the people there said don't do it "A child," Hamid said, without fipsi
with his deft, professional gentleness to me, and the people here said don't taling and clearly
opened Farre's closed eyelid. "Look'" do /f to him, Marry your own kind, "What kind of child''"
he said. She too stooped to look, to marry In your own kind. But what did "Does it matter?"
She said nothing.
"His child, your child, as your
daughter is. Do you know what kind of
child Idi is?"

After a while Makali said softly, "I ik^

'

me. She does not have the amber eye";

"Would you care less for her she if

did?"
"No," she said.
She stood silent. She looked down
at her husband, then toward the wm
dows, then straight at Hamid
"You came to learn," she said
"Yes, And to give what help (:n I

give."
She nodded. "Thank you. she said "

He laid his hand a moment on his

heart.
She down in
her usual place be
sal
side the bed with
a deep, very quief
breath, too quiet to be a sigh
Hamid opened his mouth. "He's
blind, deaf, without feeling. He doesn't
know if you're there or not there. He's a
log, a block, you need not keep Ihis
vigil!" All these words said themselves

aloud in his mind, but he did not speak

one of them. He closed his mouth and
stood silent.
"How long''" she asked m her usual
soft voice.
"I don't know. That change . came
quickly. Maybe not long now
She nodded. She laid her hand on
her husband's hand, her light warm
 "

GROLIER
INTRODUCt
ABREAKTHROUG
^'^^
THATS OUT
THISWORL

louch on ths hard bones under hard A few dry leaves, a twig What their blos- Makali came back ruddy and
skin, the long, strong, molionless fin- som was, their fruit, he did not know. It sweaty from her walk in the summer
gers "Once," she said, "he showed me was summer, between the flower and morning. Her vitality, her vulnerability
the stump of one of the olders, one that the seed. And he dared not take a were infinitely moving and pathetic to

tell down a long time ago." branch, a twig, a leaf from the living tree. Hamid after his long contemplation of a
Hamid nodded, thinking of the sunny When he joined the people of the slow, inexorable toughening, harden-
clearing in the grove, the wild rose. farm for supper, old Pask was there. ing, withdrawal. He said, "Makali-dem,
fiad broken right across in a "Doctor-dem," the saddler said in there is for you to be here all
no need
"It

great storm, the trunk had been rotten. his rumbling bass, "is he turning?" day. There is nothing to do for him but

It was old, ancient, they weren't sure "Yes," Hamid said. keep Ihe water-basin full."
even who ... the name hundreds . . .
"So youYe giving him water?" "So it means nothing to him that sit I

of years old. The roots were still in the "Yes." by him," she said, half questioning half
ground but the trunk was rotten. So it "You must give him water, dema," stating,

broke right across in the gale. But the the old man said, relentless. "She "Ithink It does nol. Nol any more."
stump was still there in the ground. And doesn't know. She's not his kind. She She nodded.
you could see. He showed me." After a doesn't know his needs." Her gallantry touched him. He longed
pause she said, "You could see the "But she bears his seed," said "Dema, did he, did anyone
to help her.
bones. The leg bones. In the trunk of Hamid, grinning suddenly, fiercely, at ever speak to you about this should if

the tree. Like pieces of ivory. Inside it. the old man. happen
There may be ways we can
Broken off with it." After another silence, Pask did not smile or make any ease the change, things that are tradi-
she said, "So they do die. Finally sign, his stiff face impassive. He said, tionally done
don't know them. Are
I

Hamid nodded. "Yes. The girl's not, but the other may there people here whom might ask I

Silence again. Though he listened and be older." And he turned away. Pask and Dyadi
?"

watched almost automatically, Hamid Next morning after he had sent Makali "Oh, they'll know what to do when
did not see Farre's chest rise or fall. out for her walk, Hamid studied Farre's the time comes," she said, with an
"You may go whenever you like, feet. They were extended fully into the edge in her voice. "They'll see to it that
Hamid-dem," she said gently. "I'm all water, as il he had stretched downward it's done right. The right way, the old

right now. Thank you." to it, and [he skin looked softer. The way, You don't have to worry about
He went to his room. On the table, long brown toes stretched apart a little. Ihat. The doctor doesn't have to bury

under Ihe lamp when he lighted it, lay And his hands, still motionless, his patient, after all. The gravediggers
some leaves. He had picked them up seemed longer, the fingers knotted as do that."

from the border of the lane that went by with arthritis yet powerful, lying spread "He is nol dead."

the grove, the grove of the older trees. on the coverlet at his sides. "No, Only blind and deaf and dumb
and doesn't know if I'm in the room or a
hundred miles away." She looked up at
Hamid, a gaze wtiich for some reason
embarrassed him, "If stuck a knife in
f)is hand would he feel it?" she asked,
He chose lo take Ihe question as
one of curiosity, desire to know. "The
response to any stimulus has grown
steadily less," he said, "and in the last
few days has disappeared. That is,
it
response to any stimulus I've offered."
He took up Farre's whst and pinched
as hard as he could, though Ihe skin
was so lough now and the flesh so dry
thai he had difficulty doing so.
She watched. "He was ticklish," she
said. Hamid shook his head. He
touched the sole of ihe long brown fool
that rested in the basin of water; there
was no withdrawal, no response
"So he feels nothing. Nothing hurts
him," she said.
"I think not."
"Lucky him."
Embarrassed again, Hamid bent
down to study the wound. He had left
off Ihe bandages, tor Ihe slash had
The slash
seam, and the deep gash had developed
a tough
ring well on the way to
a clean seam, and Ihe
closed, leaving
deep gash had developed a tough lip
allround a barky ring that was well
it,
on the way lo sealing It
"I could carve my
iviakali said, leaning close to
and then she bent down over the inert
body, kissing and stroking and holding
it, her tears running down.
When she had wept a while, Hamid
went to call the women of the house-
hold, and they came gathering round
her full of solace and took her off to an-
other room. Left alone, Hamid drew the
sheel back up over Farre's chest; he
felt a satisfaction in her having wept at
last, having broken down. Tears were
the natural reaction, and the necessary
one. A woman clears her mind by
weeping, a woman had told him once.
He flicked his thumbnail hard against
Farre's shoulder. It was
headboard, ihe night table his nail
stung for a momenl. He felt a surge of
anger against his patient, no patient,
no man al all, not any more.
Was his own mind clear? Why was
he angry with Farre? Could the man
help being what he was, or what he
was becoming?
56 OMNI
Hamid went oui of the house and
walked his circuit, went to his own
room to read. Late in the afternoon he
I went lo the sickroom. No one was there
with Farre. He pulled out the chair she
had sal in so many days and nights
and sat down. The shadowy silence of
Ihe room soothed his mind, A healing
was occurring here: a strange healing,
a mystery, frightening, but real. Farre
had traveled from mortal injury and
it pain to this quietness; had turned from
death to this different, this other life,
this older life. Was there any
that? Only that he wronged her in leav-
ing her behind, and he must have done
that, and more if he had died.
cruelly,
Or was the cruelty
in his not dying?
Hamid was still there pondering,
at all, half asleep in Ihe Iwilit serenity of Ihe
room, when Makali came in quietly and
lighted a dim lamp. She wore a loose,
light shirt thatshowed the movement of
her full breasts, and her gauze trousers
were gathered at the ankle above her
bare feet: was a hoi night, sultry, the
it
air stagnant on the salt marshes and
had dosed, leaving a clean
lip all around it, a barky
sealing it
the sandy fields of the island.
came around the bedstead.
started to get up.
shut. "No, no, stay. I'm sorry, Hamid-dem.
name on him," Forgive me. Don't get up. only wanted I the huge trunks of the trees were al-
Hamid, to apologize for behaving like
"Grief must find its way out," he said.
"1 hate to cry. Tears
empty me. And
pregnancy makes one cry over nothing."
"This is a griefworth crying for, dema."
"Oh, yes," she said. "If we had
loved each other. Then might have
I trees, windless, perfectly silent.
cried that basin full." She spoke with a
hard lightness. "But that was over
years ago. He went off to the war to get
away from me. This child carry, isn'tI
his. He was always cold, always slow.
Always what he is now." She looked
down at the figure in the bed with a
quick, strange, challenging glance.
"They were hght," she said, "half-
like flicking the alive shouldn't marry the living. If your
wifewas a stick, was a stump, a lump
of wood, wouldn't you seek some
friend of fleshand blood? Wouldn't you
seek the love of your own kind?"
As she spoke she came nearer to
Hamid, very near, stooping over him. Her
closeness, the movement of her cloth-
ing, the warmth and smell of her body.
filled his world suddenly and entirely,
and when she laid her hands on his
shoulders he reached up to her, sink-
ing upward into her, pulling her down
onto him to drink her body with his
mouth, to impale her heavy softness on
the aching point of his desire, so lost in
her that she had pulled away from him
before he knew She was turning from
it
him, turning to the bed, where with a
long, creaking groan the stiff body
trembled and shook, trying to bend, to
rise, and the round blank balls of the
wrong in eyes stared out under lifted eyelids.
"Therel" IVlakali cried, breaking free
of Hamid's hold, standing triumphant.
"Farre!"
The stiff half-lifted arms, the out-
spread fingers trembled like branches
inthe wind. No more than that. Again
the deep, cracking, creaking groan from
within the rigid body. She huddled up
against it on the tilted bed, stroking the
face and kissing the unblinking eyes,
the lips, the breast, the scarred belly,
the lump between the joined, grown-to-
gelher legs. "Go back now," she mur-
mured, "go back to sleep. Go back, my
dear, my own, my
now know, now know.
I I
love,
,
go back now,
.
."
Hamid broke from his paralysis and
left the room, the house, striding blindly
out into the luminous midsummer night.
He was very angry with her, for using
him; presently with himself, for being
usable. His outrage began to die away
shut. as he walked. Stopping, seeing where
he was, he gave a short, rueful, startled
She laugh. He had gone astray off the lane,
Hamid following a path thai led right into the
Old Grove, a path he had never taken
before. All around him, near and far,
a child." most invisible under the massive dark-
ness of their crowns. Here and there
the moonlight struck through the fo-
liage, making the edges of the leaves
silver, pooling like quicksilver in the
grass. It was cool under the older
Hamid shivered. "He'll be with you
soon," he said to the thick-bodied,
huge-armed, deep-rooted, dark pres-
it ences. "Pask and the others know what
to do. He'llbe here soon. And she'll
come here with the baby, summer af-
ternoons, and sit in his shade, iviaybe
she'll be buried here. At his roots. But I
am not staying here." He was walking
as he spoke, back toward the farm-
house and the quay and the channels
through the reeds and the roads that
led inland, north, away. "If you don't
mind, I'm on my way, right away. ."
. .
The olders stood unmoved as he
hurried out from under them and strode
down ihe lane, a dwindling figure, too
slight, too quick to be noticed. DO
 OMNl'S
PROJECT
\" OPEN
BOOK

"^

.
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.

^
i
TAG E 58
SI'fClAI. RLl'ORT:
n 1
1'
Stem 1

JNVASION: [XltS n
Ai)n uiv
I'ACil. (>5
OMNIOIMN
Till
HOOK III ID
INVISIIGATOKS
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I'ACil (>9
lYI: IN Tin SKY:
IN IIIKOWN
wonns AN
M'.DI IC Ills MORV

Caiherine just can't explain
She has no idea why she
il.
so compelled to keep
felt
on driving thai night after
leaving the Boston night-
club where she worked as
a receptionist. It was after
midnight and she had driv-
en past Somerville, where
she lives. Nor does she
know why she got off the
highway about 10 miles
why she drove
the north, or
around Saugus and mo-
mentarily got lost in a
wooded area. But after
finding her way out, she
noted that was 2:45 in the
it
morning at least 45 min-
utes later than it should
have been.
Feeling anxious, she
raced back home, The next
day, on local news, she
learned that dozens of peo-
ple throughout the North-
east had reported a UFO,
including a policeman and
his wife who had seen an
object stop overhead and
shine a light on them. As-
tronomers said the object
was a shooting star,
A few weeks
Catherine decided to con-
tact Harvard psychiatrist
John Mack, author of the
1977 Pulitzer Prize-winning
biographyof T E. Lawrence
and known most recently
for his outspoken interest in
the UFO abduction phe-
nomenon. In a series
notic regression sessions,.
Mack helped Catherine
locka lifetime of apparent
abduction memories, be-
ginning at the age of three
and culminating
murky night just weeks be- to half the tables had hu-
age of 22
fore at the mans on them. She esti-
SECRET Catherine did not enjoy
finding outwhat had hap-
pened to her in the woods
mates there were between
100 and 200 people in that
room. But in the mass of
INmSION: on the night of March 6, bodies and blank faces she
DOES 1991. "I don't want to be remembers one ofthem
IT ADD UP? there," a very frightened specifically the one on
Catherine told Mack while the table to her left. He was
under hypnosis. "I want to a black man with a beard
drive out" Catherine was forced to
to But she could not Her situp on her table and the
carhad apparently come to beings then began running
a stop and her body had their fingers down her
gone numb. Then suddenly spine. The terrifying exami-
her door had opened, "There nation had begun.
is a hand reaching out to The rest of Catherine's
ARTICLE traumatic UFO experience
get me," Catherine recalled,
BY PATRICK HUYGHE "It's long and Ihin and it's appears in John Mack's con-
only got three fingers." A troversial book. Abduction:
DO REPORTS OF being with huge, black, al- Human Encounters with
MULTIPLE mond-shaped eyes then Mens, and is rather typical
took her from the car, and of such stones, Bui one de-
ABDUCTIONS PROVE
the two ofthem were swept in her story stands out
tail
THE REALITY up in a beam toward a like a Gulliver in Lilliput
OF A HAUNTING huge metallic ship. that bit about the hundreds
The alien abductor, the of other humans she saw
PHENOMENON
story goes, then took aboard the alien craft that
OR MASS ILLUSION Catherine inside, into a hall- And Catherine is by
night.
FLAMING way, where four other be- no means alone among al-
ings were waiting. When leged abductees in report-
OUT OF CONTROL? presence ot large
they began pulling at her ing the
clothes, she got annoyed. numbers of humans aboard
later, "Slop it," she recalled think- the alien crafts.
ing. "I'm perfectly capable What accounts like these
of doing this myself, thank suggest is that the phe-
you."Once naked, Cather- nomenon actually involves
ine was led into an enor- mass abductions. appears, It
mous room "the size of an as in Catherine.'s tale, that
airplane hangar." large numbers of people
She saw rows and rows are being taken, one by one,
Of tables everywhere. "There to central locations that
of hyp- are hundreds of humans in serve as holding facilities
here," she told Mack under for dozens, perhaps hun-
un- hypnosis, "And they're all dreds, of others during the
having things done to same period of time. If Ihe
them." The rows were about other abductees' stories
five feet apart, she noted, are true, moreover, some-
in that and anywhere from a third times entire groups of peo-
pie are taken all at once, THE MASS The extraordinary num- edly been abducted in a
Reports of this phenom- ber of people supposedly single episode. The situation

enon, in fact, confirm some

ABDUCTION CASES going through that revolv- led Bullard to lament wryly
people's worst fears about OFFER ing door should, it seems, that, apparently, "there's
the alien endeavor. Could THE
BELIEVERS help cement the case for just no safety in numbers,"
we all be pawns in some the reality of the phenome- One of the earliest mass
weird extraterrestrial breed-
CHANCE TO non. If multiple participants abduction cases on record
ing scheme to repopulale a CROSS-CHECK THE are involved in an abduc- actually involved nine peo-
dying alien world? Or is the DETAILS OF tion, the logic goes, then ple and took place one sum-
entire human race being the experience cannot be mer some 40 years ago
unwillingly dratted into some
THE ABDUCTION the product of one individ- near Crater Lake, Oregon;
hideous alien genetic ex- EXPERIENCE ual's fantasy or hallucina- it was not, however, re-
periment to produce alien- FROM INDEPENDENT tion. In fact, themass ab- ported to a UFO organiza-
human hybrids? Whatever duction cases seem to offer tion until 1982. The par-
the case, one thing seems
PERSPECTIVES believers a golden oppor- ticipants were a 32-year-old
clear:Quite a large number AND DEVELOP THE tunity to cross-checl< the woman known only as Mrs.
of us are potential targets. abduction ex-
details of the her 15-year-old brother,
PROOF THE R.,

"The phenomenon is not. perience from independent 10-year-old sister, two

as the general public tends
CRITICS HAVE ALWAYS perspectives and develop daughters and a stepdaugh-
to believe, an occasional DEMANDED. the proof the critics have ter aged 10 to 13, two
'there's one. let's get him' always demanded. younger nephews, and Mrs.
sort of thing on the part of These mass abductions R.'s 53-year-old mother.
the aliens," explains David certainly appear to take The witnesses remem-
Jacobs, a Temple Univer- place often enough. Jacobs bered that while looking for
sity historian specializing in estimates that abductees a gas station they had come
twentieth-century U.S. his- see other humans aboard upon what appeared to be
tory and the author of the the craft in half, if not most, a restaurant. Their car en-
book. Secret Life. Instead, of the cases. And one out gine sputtered and coasted
he asserts, we have a mass of every four alleged ab- into a parking area where
abduction program taking duction episodes involves three or four other cars
place covertly. The notion multiple participants, ac- were parked. The "build-
of a secret invasion inevitably cording to Thomas Bullard, ing" was round and lighted
springs to mind. a folklorist whose 1987 Uni- and the interior was circu-
"What we have here," versity of Indiana doctoral lar, Mrs, R. remembered
says Jacobs, "is a continual dissertation exhaustively commenting to her mother
-abduction scenario. It's very analyzed about 300 pub- that the place was "really
much lil<e an assembly line. lished abduction accounts. unbelievable," The family
The aliens gel Ihem in. They Bullard found that while then sat down
at one of the
go into a waiting area where approximately half of these tables and apparently or-
they see other people sil- multiple-participant abduc- dered a meal from short,
ting around. They get cases involved just two
tion slender people with blond
shown to a table. There are
people usually family hair who all looked alike
all sorts of people lying on members or friends the and wore identical silver
the tables as various stages other half involved either uniforms and boots that
procedures are
of different three, four, or more people sported the same emblem,
being run on them. Then who claimed to have been "When think about it now,"
I

they get them up, get them taken at once. There are said Mrs, R.'s mother almost
out, and new people arrive. even cases in which seven two decades later, "I have
It's a revolving door." or more people have report- a funny feeling like maybe
we were a surprise to Ihem," Weiner, Charlie Foltz, and was now all coals. Jim subsequently published a
Mrs. R. thinks they ate Chuck Rak decided to re- thought Ihe large logs they book. The Allagash Abduc-
and paid their bill before plenish their now-scarce had set on the fire should tions, as well. "All of the Al-

ieavmg. Though the car food supply by doing a little have burned for two to lagash witnesses are of
would not start immedi- night fishing. Before sliding three hours, sound mind and reputa-
ately, it sort ot "coasted" their canoe into the water, The four men had no tion," concludes Fowler,
onto the highway first and they prepared a large bon- memory of what happened "They not only tell essen-
only then got underway. fire in order to find their way during the time it took the tially the same story, bul

When the (amily reached back to camp in the pitch bonfire to burn down, And under hypnosis Ihey relive

the next town, Mrs. R. dis- dark wilderness. several years would pass it with all the Irauma and
covered that ihey had not They were halfway across before Jim and Jack began emotions that would be ex-
spent any money and that a cove when they saw a to experience a series of pected of a real physical
no one in town had ever silent, large, bright sphere strange dreams ot alien ab- event, th)nk Ihe evidence
l

heard of such a restaurant. of colored light at treetop ductors that would eventu- here is undeniable and would
Though ihe family returned level about 200 yards away. ally lead them to seek help stand up in court if we were
to search for it, they never When Charlie began flash- from UFO investigator Ray- only dealing with an auto-
found it, ing his flashlight at it, the mond Fowler in May 1988. mobile accident or some-
"I know was I in a UFO," object began moving to- Over Ihe nexi two years thing like thai. But when
said Mrs. R. almost three ward Ihem. Then, as the Fowler hypnotized each ot you are talking about some-
decades after the experi-
sphere now only about 50 the four men independently thing as bizarre as UFO ab-
ence, though that realiza- leet above the water ap- and elicited a strangely ductions, people find that
tion did not begin to regis- proached, the canoeists de- congruent testimony about very, very hard to believe,"

ter with her until about 1969, cided to head for solid being plucked from the Even harder to believe
when she started recalling ground and began paddling water by a beam of light, is a case that appears to
the incident and discussing quickly toward shore. Their taken aboard the craft, and involve a mass abduction
it with her family, paddling became increas- forced to undergo medical of hundreds of people in
Peihaps the best docu- ingly frantic when the object examinations by aliens. New York City late in the
mented of all mass abduc- emitted a beam of light that Each of the four men re- summer or early fall of 1992.

tion cases involves four advanced on (heir canoe. called seeing the other The case is currently being
young men who were ca- The next thing Charlie three on board the alien investigated by Budd Hop-
noeing along the Allagash Foltz and Jim Werner re- craft, "They were all made kins, who IS probably better
Waterway in the wilderness . mem be red was standing at to sit on a bench in Ihe known as a UFO researcher
of northern Ivlaine on Au- the campsite watching the nude," says Fowler, "and than as a modern artist
gust 26, 1976, Under hyp- object move away Chuck they watched one after the these days.
nosis, all four experienced Rak remembers staying in other being taken off the The story first emerged
missing time and relived a the canoe and watching it bench. Some of Ihe exami- during one of Hopkins'
detailed and amazingly disappear. Jack Weiner re- nation was done within eye- support group meetings (or
similarUFO abduction epi- members first madly trying sight of the others and some abductees. One person,
sode. This case, which was to outrun the beam of light, of it was done after Ihey Maty, was telling the group
thoroughly investigated by then calmfy getting out of were taken around the cor- about a very vivid dream
Raymond Fowler, is unique the canoe. ner from the bench But she had had, though she
in Ihe annals of UFO re- He finds it odd that they when you put all together it wasn't sure it was a dream.
search in that it provides would be in such a hurry one like a picture puzzle, you She recalled being in some
four separate, mutually col- moment and so calm the find that everybody is de- sort of huge space filled

laborating accounts of the next. After the object disap- scribing the same event with what appeared to be
same event. peared, the four walked up from different standpoints." "people -movers" and many,
It went something like the beach to find that the Fowler went on to pro- many humans, all com-
this: On Ihe fifth day of their huge bonfire they had left duce a 10-volume, 702- The scene
pletely naked.
canoe trip, Jim and Jack just 15 or so minutes before page study ot this case and somewhat resembled the
 S P E C I A

physical at a selective ser- big long scar; it comes from for them. Or it happened." paralysis and the various
vice exam.And there was a a bladder operation she had While it's certainly diffi- kinds of hallucinations that
kind of escalator, taking as a child. Joan did not see cult to believe that vast accompany It.

people up to another floor. Bill closely, but Hopkins numbers of humans are But David Jacobs, one
At that point, two other asked her he had much
if being abducted in this way of the authors of the poll,
abductees in the group, Bill chest hair. Joan said no, and, on a regular basis, there is, begs to differ with his crit-

and Joan, became ex- in fact, he doesn't. surprisingly enough, some ics. He and Hopkins, Ja-

tremely agitated and said. Bill's description of the data to corroborate these cobs explains, had thor-
"Oti gee, I've had a dream experience under hypnosis harrowing anecdotal re- oughly pre-tested nine of
just like that was much the same as ports. Several surveys con- the eleven abduction-re-
Hopkins immediately cut Joan's. He
saw a chart
also ducted over the past decade lated questions on that poll.
oft the conversation so that on the and though his
wall, indicate that millions of And those nine were ques-
he could explore their ex- it is some-
recollection of Americans have experi- tions most frequently an-
periences individually. Later, what Hopkins is
different, enced something that UFO swered positively by ab-
when Hopkins probed into convinced they are de- researchers think suggests ductees, not nonabductees,
Joan's dream under hypno- scribing the same object. the possibility of abduction (The other two questions
sis, she recalled the same Under hypnosis, Mary was by alien beings. tested the reliability of the
large space, a strange chart less clear about the epi- In a T991 Roper survey, poll. One of them, for in-
on the wall, and. most in- sode than the other two, the most impressive of the stance, was a fake question,
credibly, seeing both Mary but, as Hopkins points out. polls, 119 people of the al- which gave the pollsters an
and Bill there as well, tolaiiy she generally doesn't have most 6,000 questioned re- idea of how many people
naked. Typically, both the recall that other people vealed they had experi- had the impulse to answer
looked "out of it" to her. tend to have. enced what UFO investiga-' positively no matter what
"Carl Sagan always has Hopkins has not explored tors call an alien abduction. was asked. The responses
the idea that you are going how the three were "ab- If the numbers are extrapo- from the 1 percent who re-
to dash around and steal ducted" or how they were lated to the entire popula- sponded positively to this
an alien cocktail napkin or returned, and he will not tion of the United States, question were not included
something for evidence as describe the strange chart this translates to a stagger- in the final results,)

you dash out of the place," seen by Bill and Joan, nor ing five million abductees. "When we first got the
notes Hopkins, "as if ab- the "space" the event itself The Roper poll, of course, numbers, the raw statis-
ductees had all their senses took place in; he prefers to is problematic. It has been tics," says Jacobs, "the
intact. But in this, as in other keep such details to him- severely criticized on the numbers were ridiculously
situations, the abductees self as a check on the au- grounds that the five so- high 7 percent, 8 percent.
were in an altered state," thenticity of future cases! called key indicators of an It was politically unaccept-

Joan remembers having "It's a very good case," abduction experience re- able. So we decided to
a perfunctory conversation explains Hopkins, "because porting unusual lights in a look only at the answers to

withMary in which they ex- there is literally no way that room, missing time, flying the best five questions
pressed surprise at seeing they knew about this stuff. through the air without those we considered to be
each other there. Hopkins None a friend
of the three is knowing why, paralysis in the highest indicators for
then asked Joan what Mary of the other two in any inti- the presence of strange an abduction and didn't
looked like naked. Joan mate way. They only know bedroom dgures, or puz- consider people potential
said that Mary was very of each other from the sup- zling scars on the body abductees unless they an-
round-shouldered and that port group. So here we are may not in fact mean that swered four or all five of
she had a big long scar at again stuck with one of two an abduction has occurred. those questions positively
the bikini tine, possibilflies. Either they have Psychologists point out that By doing that, we got the
Mary, as it happens, is cooked this up as a hoax, most of these experiences numbers down to a politi-
extremely round-shouldered inwhich case you have can also be caused by the cally acceptable 2 percent.
and always wears shoulder three virtual sociopaths be- little-known but quite com- The best we can say is that
pads. And she does have a cause there IS nothing in it mon phenomenon of sleep about one out of every 50


R E P O R

Americans has had experi- a shoe factory or medical IF FIVE MILLION tion, Durant figured that

ences consistent with what ought to apply equally

facility
pbductees have had. That case of an alien
well to the
indicates that an awful lot abduction program carried
of people out there have out on a host planet."
each team could then per-
ABDUCTEES form 12 abductions a day
HAVE EXPERIENCED So to perform 2,740 abduc-
10 ABDUCTIONS tions a day, he calculated

had abduction experiences. To avoid comparisons that the aliens would need
OVER THE LAST 50 268 teams, or a total of
And this of course is con- with other fanciful exercises,
sistent with what the ab- counting the number of
like YEARS, THEN 1,370 aliens.
ductees themselves teli us. dancing angels on the AN ASTONISHING Even if you double these
They come into a room and head of a pin, Durant figures to account for the
searched the
ONE m'iLLION fact that most abductions
they see 50, 75, or 100 other literature for

people lying on tables, actual data points to plug ABDUCTIONS TAKE take place at night rather
and they report a constant into his equation. How often PLACE PER than 24 hours a day, the
stream of people. And we does the typical abductee bottom line, Durant discov-
figure it's twenty-four hours claim to be abducted?
YEAR, OR 2,740 PER ered, was that "about 500
a day, seven days a week." Though this varies widely, DAY IN THE crews, totaling about 3,000
But to critics, millions of he found that 10 times was UNITED STATES aliens could do the job."

abduction reports actually not an unreasonable num- While these figures may
ALONE.
prove the opposite that ber, At what age do abduc- appear large, if you com-
there are just loo many of tions begin and cease? pare them with the num-
them for the phenomenon Typically, they begin around bers needed to man naval

to be real. That's what age 5 and end by age 55, vessels, says Durant
Robert Durant, a commer- he discovered. How long 5,500 for an aircraft carrier
cial pilot witii a long interest did abductions take to ac- and about 350 for a de-
inUFOs, thought at first, complish? The periods of stroyer the whole thing
But when he decided to missing time reported by begins to look, well, plausi-

put his doubts to the test abductees range from min- ble. "The way the math
by figuring out how large a utes to days, but most are worked out kind of knocked
work force the aliens would on the order of two hours. me back a bit," he admits.
need to carry out the mil- How many aliens does it "This is extremely troubling
lions ofabductions the take to perform an abduc- to me because while I'm a

Roper survey suggested tion? It's rare, he learned, total believer in UFOs, I

were taking place, he tormore than six aliens to don't buy the physical ab-
began to thinly the mass be involved in any one ab- duction scenario. And there^

abduction scenario was at duction event. no way I'm saying my analy-

least plausible. Based on that data, Du- sis proves abductions are

"I began very skepti- rant came up with some real, because after ai! these

cally," notes Durant, "I hair-raising numbers about years, we still don't have a
thought no way could these the required "alien work shred of tangible proof."

numbers be correct But I force." If five million ab- But Durant's number-
decided to work through ductees have experienced
the math to see what I would 10 abductions over the last just the beginning. Before

come up with. began by I 50 years, then an astonish- long. Dennis Stacy, editor
assuming that abductions ing one million abductions of a monthly UFO publica-

are real physical events take place per year, or tion. The MUFON Journal
carried out systematically 2,740 per day in the United had picked up the ball
by a large work force. If this States alone. If a team of Doing some math of his
is the case, then the shop- six aliens is required to per- own, he came to conclude
floor parameters relevant to form each two-hour abduc- the numbers didn't work,
 S P E C I A REPORT

By hJs reckoning, in fact, THINKOF awaiting landing and ab- ues, "is that these four
line alien work force re- like so many
duction rights, guys who have been bud-
THE LOGISTICS: UFOs these years go
quired was way beyond 747s, The scale of such dies for all

tlie limiis of possibility. UP OVER an invasion would be im- through abduction regres-
"if the pfienornenon is THE WORLD'S MAJOR possible for any govern- sion therapy, get all these
global in nature, as it ap- ment to plausibly ignore or memories, and manage
pears
METROPOUTAN cover up," not to talk about to their
to be," says Stacy, it

"then the 1 million abduc- AREAS, AWAITING If the numbers don't buddies for a year, until
tions a year in the United LANDING make sense, then how do they've all been hypno-

States grows to 22 million we explain the mass ab- tized. If you were my
abductions worldwide.
AND ABDUCTION duction memories of peo- buddy and that had hap-
You would then need at RIGHTS, LIKE ple like Mary, Bill, Joan, pened to me, think I'd tellI

least 11,000 alien crews, SO MANY 747s. THE Jack, Jim, Chuck, and you. So when they say we
for a total of66,000 aliens, Charlie? William Cone, a didn't talk lo each other, I

and
SCALE OF clinical psychologist with don't buy But think
lo carry out the task, that. I

of course, 11,000 UFOs THE INVASION a private practice in New- they really did see some-
overhead at any given WOULD BE port Beach, California, has thing. They really did have
hour." And if you take into done a lot of research on an experience. But whether
account the need for sup-
IMPOSSIBLE FORANY abductees and thinks that it's an abduction experi-
port crews, reasonable GOVERNMENT while some cases of mass ence, I don't know."
shifts, and such, notes TO COVER UP OR abduction are quite impres- Cone ventures a similar
Stacy, the numbers, like the slve, many can be ex- explanation for the mass
Eveready Rabbit, "keep IGNORE. plained as "contamination." abduction case of 1992 in

on growing and growing Look for instance, he New York City, which first

and growing," says, at the Allagash appeared in a support

For Stacy, the ridicu- case the one involving group meeting of ab-

n
lously large numbers point the four men in the canoe. ductees at Budd Hopkins'
to an obvious conclusion. "It's interesting that all of home, "There a great is

"There must be a terres- these guys were heavily deal of contamination in

that is, psychological
trial, interested in UFOs and this field," notes Cone,
in nature, rather than ex- abductions before ever "especially in support
traterrestrial origin to the going to see Fowler. They groups. We've known since
abduction experience," he all knew about abduc- the days of the nineteenth-

says. "The argument that tions, and they walked in century French physician
some 200 million people to Fowler, who Ihey knew Jean Martin Charcot that
have' been abducted had written other books on support groups contami-
aboard physical flying the subject. They walked nate memory. It's no secret,
craft in, say, the last decade inwith a pre-set mind of but somehow UFO re-
or so, is simply unsupport- We saw something, we - searchers, not being men-
able in terms of common have missing time, so we tal health professionals,
sense and logic. What must have been abducted. have never bothered to
imaginable need of non- And this happens again look at this. They think these

terrestrial science would and again. I find it inter- people are getting sup-
this serve? And think of esting that 12 years went port, butwhat they are
the logistics such a fan- by when they didn't worry doing is reaffirming their
tastic undertaking would about It, until they read own fantasies. I hear this

involve. UFOs would be some UFO books, all the lime in hospitals I

stacked up over the world's "The other thing I find work at. You put somebody
major metropolitan areas. incredible," Cone contin- in the support group, and

COfJTINUED ON P^
 FIELD INVESTIGATOR'S G

was the fictional Sher- lech wish an access any specific

It

lock Holmes who noted guide to

list;

a potpourri of re-
THE dollar for
Bargains abound out
tool.

that "the
He didn't
game is

have UFOs
mind, obviously, but a more
elusive quarry could hardly
afoot."
in
search tools from
mailing lists

and even instructions for

procuring government
maps
and databases;
to

OMNI
BOOK
OPEN
there, from the classified
section of your local news-
paper to specialist mail-
order catalogs, discount
be imagined. documents and powering FIELD warehouses, and army
If modern-day UFO de- surplus Stores. The sky's
onto the Internet. INVESTIGATORS
tectives are to be suc- While some tools are the limit when it comes to
cessful, they'll want to absolutely required, oth-
GUIDE: UFO-detection equipment,
bring the best available Some are
ers are optional. PART THREE but so is personal creativ-
hardware and software to easy come by the basic
to ity. Some of you may even
bear on their prey. In this compass, for instance want to build or jerry-rig
installment, we'll review while others can be ac- tools of your own. In the
the basic hardware you'll quired only after careful end, your basic UFO tool

want to carry into the field. research or trips to a spe- kit can be as simple or so-
From flashlight and cam- cialty store. In the chapter phisticated as you like,

era to the always handy that follows we'll make depending on your bud-
compass, we'll describe general recommendations. get and your needs. But
the basic equipment any Remember, however, es- ARTICLE no UFO sleuth can skip
self-respecting UFO hunter peciallywhere electronic BY DENNIS STACY the essentials, and that is
needs. As we focus on and optical equipment is where we begin.
tools in the months that fol- concerned, that prices and The absolute necessi-
low, we'll supplement this quality can vary widely. ties of any UFO investiga-
basic tool kit with user- Also, there's no require- tor's tool kit start with what
friendly software; a high- ment that you pay retail 1 call the three P's pen or


pencil and paper. A written airplane flight patterns, and facing the car, for example, neering supply house, of-

record of your investiga- so on, but they can also lit- take your first measurement fers compasses calibrated
tion,which includes per- erally point you in the direc- just behind the front left to the northern hemisphere
sonal notes and witness tion of additional witnesses. headlight and proceed par- with luminous dials and
interviews, is absolutely es- Like pocket change, a good allel to the left side of the built-in clinometer for meas-
sential, No matter how reli- compass can serve two utili- car until you reach the hood uring heights and slopes of
able the brand name, elec- tarian purposes. Besides hinge in front of the wind- up to 90 degrees. In addi-
tronic equipment is always giving directions, can also it shield. Continue to take tion, the company also sells
subject to potential disas- aot as a crude magnetome- and record readings from a 214-page instruction
ter. Tapes break, batteries ter, a device for measuring the left side of the car to manual for beginners unfa-
fail, cameras and recorders changes in local magnetic the driver's side, then pro- miliar with how to read maps
get dropped, especially un- fields, although obviously it ceed forward until you end and compasses ($1 1,95),
der field conditions. And can't determine the strength just behind the right head- Next month we'll cover
while cameras and cam- or degree of that change. light, having executed an the subject of maps in de-
corders can offer documen- But assume that you're upside-down U. Carefully tail, but for now, sketch out
tary exactitude, the sun investigating a UFO case in record magnetic north or your own map, indicating any
sets and it can also rain which associated electro- the deviation from mag- prominent landmarks. If you

all outside your control. magnetic effects have been netic north at each point. happen to have a detailed
The paper, of course, reported, such as the stalling Crude as they may be, map of the region, make
should be in notebook, as of a car's engine or the fail- these 15 or so "soundings" notations on that as well.
opposed to loose-leaf, form, ure of its electrical system. represent a sort of -mag- The witness should also
Iprefer a little 5-by-8-inch It's stiil possible to make a netic "signature," so to indicate the angle at which
pad, instead of letter or legal preliminary assessment of speak. To confirm that any any UFO was seen. This can
sizes, because it's easier to magnetic-field fluctuations significant magnetic field only be an approximation
drop in a vest or jacket pock- or variations using nothing was actually encountered (or at best, obviously, but it still

et when you're done with it. more elaborate than a good, altered), a comparison test remains useful in post-in-
And please remember reliable compass, previously should be run on a control vestigative terms. For exam-
when you're out in the Held; calibrated, or confirmed, as car of the same year and ple, if Venus or the bright-
Your notebook can double indicating true north. The model, using the same com- est star in the heavens', Sir-
as a sketchpad. Alongside technique is fairly simple; in pass and taking readings ius, can be shown to have
your own written notes, be fact, it was even laid out as same evenly spaced
at the been in the same general
sure to sketch the horizon early as 1968 in the Univer- points, or intervals, Remem- direction and altitude at the
of the sighting scene, not- sity of Colorado's -Scientific ber to orient the control car same time as the reported
ing any visible landmarks, Study of Unidentified Flying (or other metallic object) in UFO, then Venus or Sirius
such as power lines, trees, Objects, otherwise known the same direction as the becomes at least a pcime
or water towers. Then ask as the Condon, Report. originally affected car. An- candidate or suspect. Again,
the witness or witnesses to Here's how it might work. other word of caution: Don't thiscan be determined by
draw in the shape of the Take the car (or any other place the compass directly handing the notebook to
object when first sighted nearby piece of metal) re- on the car hood or other the witness and letting him
and its trajectory, and ask portedly affected, and. metal object being tested; or her determine the angle
them to date and sign it. using your compass at a instead, insert your paper as best as possible. Later,
A reliable compass will distance, note its present notebook (or some other a common plastic protrac-
come in handy at this point. magnetic orientation. Now non-conductive material) tor, available from graphic
Determine magnetic north take at least ten or fifteen between the two, and art supply houses, can
and indicate same on your similar readings at evenly Expect to pay no more be used to arrive at the ap-
sketch. Directional findings spaced intervals, say every than $15 for a good-quality proximate angie.
are most useful for eliminat- ten to fifteen inches, around compass, For another $20 For the next tool of the
ingknown objects and the pehmeter of the hood or so. Forestry Suppliers trade, just look in your
phenomena like planets. or trunk of the car. If you're (800-360-7788), an engi- pocket, bet anything you
I'll


ATORS GUIDE

can stick your hand in and on your own and most of SOME HUNTERi. LIK though accessories like

pull out a few coins. Take us can'ttry inquiring at the spare batteries and bulbs
TO PACK A and a car cigarette-lighter at-
tiiat dime and simply ask relevant department (biol-
the eyewitness to hold it at ogy chemistry or physics) POWERFUL, HAND- tachment can add another
arm's length and compare of your local college or uni- HELD SEARCH- $30 to $45 to the final cosL
to ttie apparent size of the versity. You may also wish The basic UFO hunter's
it
LIGHTASAMEANSOF should also include
object seen and reported. to contact one of the estab- field kit

Was the UFO smaller or lished UFO organizations SIGNAllNG an audio tape recorder and
larger? (You may be sur- to see if they have some- ANY APPROACHING a camera of some sort.

prised to find that two full one on the staff willing to These should be regarded
UFO OR CRAFT. as necessary accessories
moons can easily hide be- assist in any material analy-

hind a single dime.) If dis- sis. Request a copy of the READILY AVATLABLE to, not substitutes for, the
tance can be estab-later final report in exchange for COMMERCIAL already-mentioned tools, I

lished with any degree ol your samples. prefer a mmi-casselte re-

certainty, this could permi I would also recommend
MODELS RANGE IN corder because, like the
a reliable approximation of two flashlights one pen- LUMINOSITY smaller notebook pad, it
the object's actual size or light and one regular-size
FROM ABOUT 100,000 can easily be slipped into a
diameter. You may substi- with back-up batteries for shirt or coat pocket. Get

tute pennies, nickels, and both (as well as for any other
CANDLEPOWER one with the most advanced
quarters, or even the lid of battery-operated equip- TO A SKY-LIGHTING features you can afford, be-
a styrofoam cup as the situ- ment). In a pinch, the pen- ginning with voice-activa-
1,000,000
ation warrants. light can be clamped be- tion and counter. The counter
Another basic is also tween your teeth for note-
CANDLEPOWER. will prove extremely helpful
readily available: a supply taking or compass-reading when it comes to transcnb-

of plastic bags, preferably at night. If your compass has ing your interviews later.

ones with a zip closure, es- luminous markings, they can Observe the Boy Scout
pecially if the UFO is re- be charged with a brief expo- motto to always be prepared
ported to have impacted sure of light, The larger light and never venture into the
the environment, leaving can be used for everything field with new equipment,
behind crushed vegetation from illuminating a distant electronic or otherwise,
or ground indentations. tree line to changing a flat which you haven't previ-
Mark each sample bag with tire in the middle of a field. ously tested and familiar-
a permanent laundry marker Some hunters like to ized yourself with,
or masking tape and pen. pack a powerful, hand-held Like tape recorders,
Be sure to collect several searchlight as a means of cameras come in a bewil-
control samples as well, be- "signaling" any approach- dering cornucopia of choice,
ginning nearby and moving ing UFO, Readily available each with its own advan-
progressively further from commercial models range tages and drawbacks. In-
the reported contact or in luminosity from 100.000 stant photographic process
landing site, carefully label- candlepower up to one mil- cameras, for example, con-
ing each one and indicat- lion candlepower. The lat- vey immediacy at the ex-
ingits position on a map, ter, 25 times brighter than an pense of resolution and
hand-drawn or otherwise, autcHTiobile headlight on high other photographic factors.
of the immediate area. Ide- beam, is capable of spot- They serve best as a sort of

these samples should

ally, ting objects up to ten miles surrogate notepad, Photo-
be turned over to a labora- away. The Forestry Suppli- graph the site during day-
tory for analysis as soon as ers catalog carries spotlights time and have the witness
possible. If you can't afford ranging in price from ap- draw the UFO on the actual
to hire a private laboratory proximately $30 to $65, al- pnnt; then have him or her
 NVESTIGATORS GUID

indicate the angle above allegedly "idiot-proof" a larger telescopic lens, considered especially if

the horizon of the UFO cameras. would also rec-

I say, 200mm to 300mm, in your investigation involves
with an outstretched arm. ommend you keep your order to achieve maximum an alleged UFO "hot spot,"
Take two photographs ot camera loaded with a rel- magnification, be aware that is, circumstances un-
each scene, if you don't ativelyhigh-speed color that you'll probably need a der which a UFO is said to
want the original marked negative (as opposed to lightweight tripod for be roaming the immediate
over. If physical side ef- slide or transparency) film, steadiness. If you're caught area, and could conceiv-
fects have been reported, one with an ASA rating of in the field without a tri- ably reappear at virtually
by all means document 1000, 1600, or higher, es- pod, steady the camera any moment.
them with the camera if pecially if you thtnk you against some solid object, Finally you'll want a pair
that's you have. A pic-
all may have the opportunity the roof of a car, for exam- of binoculars with neck-
ture, worth a potential to actually photograph a ple, if available. In a pinch, strap and a star chart. Ed-
thousand words, is better UFO yourself. What you use someone's shoulder. mund Scienlific (609-573-
than no picture at all. lose in terms of resolution Videocameras have 6858) carries the latter for

Thirty-five millimeter you'll more than gain back advanced by leaps and only $2.75. As with cam-
cameras have proliferated in terms of light-gathering bounds in recent years as
to such a degree in recent capabilities. As with bat- well, as far as basic fea- bewildering variety and
years that would be im-
it teries, always take more film turesand capabilities are price range. Opt for a com-
possible to single out any than you think you'l! need. concerned. Most of the fortable combination of
specific model as the Photography is an art major electronic manufac- weight and optical quality
agreed upon "best" for this that can'tbe taught here, turersSony, Panasonic, and expect to pay any-
or that purpose, Some so- but you should be aware and so on now offer off- where from $75 to $300.
called "point-and-shoot" of at least two techniques. the-shelf COD (charge- Binoculars are described
auto-focus cameras with First, if at all possible, be coupled device) cam- by both their magnifica-
built-in zoom lenses and sure to include some ref- corders with 12x zoom tionpower and lens diam-
pop-up flash attachments erence point (a house or lenses capable of captur- eter; thus, 7x50 binoc-
virtually rival their manu- tree) in any UFO picture. ing reasonable images in ulars give you a 50mm
facturer's professional lines A small speck of light low-light conditions, usu- lens diameter with seven
in terms of the final prod- against a dark backdrop is ally one lux or better. Such power magnification, ade-
uct. Again, assume that almost useless for analy- cameras can typically be quate for UFO hunting.
much or most of your in- no matter hew big it's
sis, found within the $700 to Most independent in-
vestigation will be con- blown up or enlarged. If $900 price range, de- vestigators should be able
ducted under less than you don't see any immedi- pending on included fea- to put together the basic
ideal conditions. Where ate reference point through tures. If your budget per- kit above for about$1,000,

photography is involved the viewfinder, try turning mits, get one with "steady- assuming they start com-
this means low light levels. the picture angle from the cam" (to counteract vibra- pletely from scratch. But
Consequently, your cam- normal horizontal view to and auto-focusing ca-
tion) for those who already have
era should have a built-in a vertical one. If that doesn't pabilities already on board. a camera, binoculars, and
flash or a "hot shoe" for at- work, trying zooming back Whether you're using a mini-cassette recorder,
taching a separate flash from the UFO until a refer- still camera or videocam- start-up costs will be cor-
unit. Flash photography is ence point does appear in era, I recommend that you respondingly lower.
notoriously tricky, how- the frame and snap your take along a lightweight Next month, look for our

ever, and once again you picture then. tripod. This will not only UFO hunters' wish list of
should familiarize yourself The range of a typical provide increased stability the best high-tech good-
with taking pictures under zoom lens from 28mm
is (and therefore sharpness) ies. But meanwhile, don't
various lighting conditions to35mm (wide angle) to for any pictures taken, it waste any lime getting
before venturing into the 105mm to 135mm when will also free your hands started. As one famous de-
field. This applies even to zoomed or tele-
fully and eyes for other activi- tective was fond of saying,

the newest generation of scoped. If you plan to use ties. A iripod should be "the game is afool,"00
 IN HER
OWN
WORDS
AN
ABDUCTEE'S
STORY

ARTICLE BY
PATRICK HUYGHE
Meet one Kalharina Wil-
son, an altraclive, intelligent,
apparently well-adjusted,
34-year-old woman. Born
ina small college town in
\he Deep Soulti, Wilson
now lives in Portland, Ore-
gon, with her second hus-
band, Erik. She sees her-
selfas "an average Ameri-
can woman," a fitting self-
description marred by just
one fact; She also claims
to be a UFO abductee.
At first glance, Wilson's
storysounds rather typical
of otherabduction lore.
She claims to have been
abducted and reproduc-
tivelytraumatized since
the age of six by small
alien creatures with large
black eyes. Then, in her
late twenties, she decided
to come out of the UFO
closet and tell all.

What's different about

Wilson's account, however,
is in the way it comes to
us straighl up. She has
 '

told her story a[l of it, away from his or her home this sort of filtering is partic- and nearly killed her,

every dirty detail on her or car by small gray crea- ularlydamaging. I don't think Wilson is

own. It does not come to us and forced to under-

tures Now ali this has changed, perpetrating a hoax, if she
secondhand, through a go some sort of medical thanks to 7776 Alien Jigsaw, were, she certainly would
Budd Hopkins or a David examination aboard a space- Katharina Wilson's coura- have left out the journal entry
Jacobs, toname just two of ship. The incident usually geous effort to buck the dated August 4. 1992, "I'm
the most prominent UFO turns out to be one of many wave of censorship and tell with Senator Gore," Wilson,
abduction researchers in in the person's past involv- all. In this brutally honest, wrote, "and we are in a large
this country, Instead, the ing a variety of reproductive firsthand account, Wilson room with many people. He
story comes to us pure and assaults semen sampling, describes a harrowing life- isorganizing something.
wholly unfiltered in a booi< artificial insemination, and time of encounters with Governor Clinton must be
Wilson has written and fetus removal resulting in what she sincerely believes here, too now I'm looking
published herself. the production of human/ are aliens.She holds noth- directly at President Bush,
Why is this so important? alien slarbabies that the ing back, and provides nu- He really looks tired-
Because hearing about ETs keep. merous surprises along the beaten," When Wilson tells

alien abductions directly Generally lacl<ing in the way To begin with she tells Gore that she has never
from experiencers reveals standard scenario, how- us of not one, or two, or a voted Republican, Bush
aspects of the phenome- ever,is the wide variety of dozen abduction episodes, looks at her "with a look of
non long ignored or per- other phenomena that the but an astounding 119 of disgust on his face," Later,
haps just swept under the person often claims to have them, occurring In a span she realizes that Gore and

carpet by most research- experienced as v^ell the of just 26 years. And her Clinton are preparing a
ers. And in the end, these psychic perceptions, the experiences involve not just feast, and she watches as it

regularly hidden details premonitions, the bedroom your typical aliens, but also grows larger and larger.
may be vital in determining encounters with dead rela- encounters with the dead, Following this journal en-
the cause of the UFO ab- ti^Jes, the ghosts, the time time-travel episodes, psy- try Wilson writes; "Although
duction phenomenon. travel, and more. Despite chic experiences, and I remember seeing
did not
Indeed, as a journalist what is often a nearly mind- even a vision of an eight- any alien beings associ-
who's investigated more numbing display of high foot-tail floating penguin ated with this encounter, it

than my fair share of UFO strangeness, you would be everything you can imagine felt the same way all of my
abductions, I've learned hard pressed to find such and a whole lot more. other visitations felt. It was
that many aspects of the descriptions in the pub- In the middle of one ab- extremely vivid,"
so-called abduction phe- lished accounts. duction episode, for exam- asked Wilson if she had
I

nomenon just don't make it In the standard abduc- ple, Wilson somehowf en- actually seen Bush, Gore,
into print, instead, most in- tion scenario, as brought to counters her present hus- and Clinton.
vestigators inevitably proc- us by the "experts," these band as a young man, years hope not," she replied
"I

ess the stories, molding the messy details are summarily before she met him. Later with just a touch of humor.
accounts io fit the theories expunged. What we are left in the episode she is terri- But that's a contradic-
they favor or the patterns withis a cleaned-up story a fiedwhen told by the aliens tion, pointed out. You say
I

they expect to find. Things tale that stays unerringly "on that is 1957-three years
it your alien encounters are
that don't fit their pre- mark," thus fitting the de- before she was born, Wil- real and that this encounter
conceived notion of v^'hat's sired "alien" mold. son also credits the aliens with political figures was
really happening "out Of course, to some ex- wfOi saving her life; she twice just as real as those you-
there" are often deliberately tent information selection had alien premonitions of have with the aliens.
left out of subsequent re- happens, often uncon- nearly being killed by light- "Did I say that?" she said,
tellings of the tale. sciously, in every field of hu- ning, and on August 7, 1989 "Weil, I don't think it was
In the standard abduction man inquiry But in a proto- Wilson put on a pair of rub- Gore because he was very
scenario, a person may or discipline lil<e UFOIogy ber-soled shoes just mo- short, thought that was
I

may not have'seen a UFO where the basic data is it- ments before lightning shat- some form of camouflage,"
but IS somehow whisked self a subiect of contention. tered the courtyard wall Wilson regards this episode


as an alien-inspired vision abduction gurus: "The aliens OUTRE

IN WILSON'S ences," she satd, "is going
of the Clinton and Gore win are probably collecting ova," to bed."
ACCOUNT,
in November 1992. she opines, landing strictly Isn't that sequence
Wilson also believes one within the standard-issue UFO ABDUCTION going to bed, falling asleep,
of the beings actually abduction scenario and INVOLVES getting "abducted," and
helped her with the book, sounding a lot like Budd
TIME TRAVEL. DEAD
waking up suggestive of
pointing out before the book Hopkins, who was the first to the nightly journey we all

went to press that she had investigate her case back RELATIVES, take to the imagistic out-
transcribed five journal in 1988, PREMONITIONS, back of the dream?
dates incorrectly. In fact, like Hopkins, who "That's a fair question,"
POLITICAL
Though some may think has penned the introduc- she replies, "But happen I

Wilson's account ridiculous, tion for The Alien Jigsaw. SUPERSTARS LIKf BILL to have dreams all the time
it is, in fact, typical of the Wilson lends to blame aliens CLINTON. AND and, even if I don't leave my
sort of outre material that for just about ail the weird- bed, abductions and dreams
abduclees consider part ness. "1 know that penguins
AN EIGHT'FOOT-TALL just do not feel the same
"

and parcel of their alien ex- arent eight feet and they
tall, FLOATING Whether Wilson is re-
periences. It's no wonder don't float in midair," she
PENGUIN EVERY- porting from the land of
that investigators intent on explains. "That was an in- Nod, the domain of aliens,
proving the alien root of stance of camouflage and
THING YOU or some other realm yet un-
UFO abductfons often leave screen memory. And don't I
CAN IMAGINE AND A known, we may never know.
such material out of their really think dead people are But whatever the truth of
WHOLE LOT MORE.
published stories. It clearly visiting me, think that's a
I the matter, it's time to ap-
weakens their case. form of alien manipulation. I plaud her tell-all book and
What does Wilson think do believe that tfie time travel attitude. Her story is, in fact,

atJOUt her verboten account, is real, but I Ihmk there have far more typical of abduc-
so potentially damaging to been a few occasions where tion cases than we have
the alien hypothesis and they manipulated me into been led to believe. And the
contrary to UFOIogy's un- thinking that happened." only way to learn the truth
written code? If you think about it, of behind the UFO abduction
"Some people suggested course, the surrealistic phenomenon is to let it all

that I cut out some of this scenes described by Wilson hang out,

material," she told
Ithought there is a lot more
going on, and even though
we don't understand
doesn't mean that
n't be reported. As far as
know, this has not been
done before. The book was
really put out there for other
experiencers, because
know they are experiencing
things that they cannot ac-
count for by reading Budd
Hopkins' Intruders and
David Jacobs' Secret Life."
Despite her candid atti-
tude, Wilson's ultimate con-
clusion echoes that of the
me, "but have the fantastical feel of Wilson's candid tale may
dreams. Is she, in fact, re- have already opened the
calling nocturnal images floodgates. Some research-
it, it from the land of dreamy ers new to the field have
it should- dreams concocted by a begun to balk at the pre-
I trick of consciousness, packaged version of the
cooked in the fires of REM. abduction phenomenon we
and transformed in the have been spoon-fed by
morning to a cocktail dish the experts, and other ab-
I of aliens, starbabies, and ductees are beginning to
UFOs? When I ask Wilson step forward with stories of
for the temporal context of theirown. A 24-year-old
her encounters, her re- businessman from Harrison
sponse IS typically straight- County, West Virginia, for
forward and telling, "I example, has come forth
would have to say thattne claiming that he has been
last thing remember pnor
I abducted by aliens at least
to most of these experi- 1,500 times.DQ
CONIINUED mow PAGE 64 what has happened to EVERY ONCE no reason for being there
the next day they have their them. They might know unless they really hap-
[N A WHTLE WELL
neighbor's story. I think a thatan odd thing has hap- pened
that tell him this is
lot of thai is going on," pened here or there, but HAVE A real, "Just last night," he

In fact, an examination linking ita UFO abduc-

to CASE WHERE SOME- says, citing one example,
of the literature reveals tion is notsomething most "I did a session with a guy

that those reporting shared of them would probably

BODY WHO who saw maybe 15 other
abduction experiences do. So of all the abduciees IS AN ABDUCTtE people aboard. He was
always know one
virtually out there we only hear from WILL COME abducted with his wife
another beforehand, or about .001 percent of them. and two kids. He remem-
contact one another be-
Ur TO ANOTHER
But every once in a while bers being in line with a
fore giving their stories to we'll have a case where PERSON AND group of people, and once
independent investiga- somebody who is an ab- SAY, "I KNOW YOU, they went Into the waiting
tors. Because of this, re- ductee will come up to an- area, they took their clothes
searchers can never really other person and say, 'I
LyE SEEN YOU off.He noted in front of
prove there had been no know you, I've seen you BEFORE," AND THEY him an older guy, heavy
collaboration, either con- before,' And they will trace and bald with just a
WILL TRACE set,
sciously or unconsciously, it back to an abduction fringe of hair on his head.
between the alleged ab- event they have shared."
ITBACK TO AN He told me in passing that
ductees. The ideal case Jacobs does not look to ABDUCTION there was a mole on his
would involve two or more such experiences for veri- shoulder,"
EVENT THEY HAVE left

people who did not know fication of the existence of A mole on his left
each other but who gave the abduction phenome- SHARED. shoulder. To Jacobs, that
collaborating details of the non, however having long kind of detail iuat smacks
same abduction incident ago moved beyond verifi- of a real, rather than an
to independent investiga- cation in search of an- imagined event. But such
tors. There is no such case. swers to such questions details will never be enough
Of course, if the reports of as, Who are they?, Where to convince the rest of the
mass abductions were lit- do they come from?, and world that Cathenne, Jack,
erally true, there should, in What do they want with Jim, Chuck, Mary, Bill,
fact, be dozens, hun- us? "Yes, some people still Joan, and millions of other
dreds, even thousands of want to be persuaded," humans have been ab-
such cases in the files of admits Jacobs. "But It's ducted by aliens. Some-
UFO investigators. not something that spend I thing more is needed,
David Jacobs tries to a lot of time on, because something more than what
explain Vifhy there are none, for me that's a little bit of any abduction case, or
"The secret aspect of the wheel spinning, t realize that mass abduction case, for
phenomenon," he says, for others this is extremely that matter, has yet been
"isremarkably efficient Important, but I can't be able to provide: a shred of
and extraordinarily effec- too much bothered with physical evidence. If there
tive, The way in which the that because it takes a lot have been millions of ab-
alien program is instituted of time and effort and it ductions, it seems as if by
militates against having a keeps me away frorri re- now, we'd have come up
lot of cases from the same searching what think are I with something certifiably
day And so does the way more important aspects of alien a lab tool, a tunic,
in which we find out about the phenomenon," a skin sample, a heretofore
cases. Most people who For Jacobs, it's the little unknown universal law, or
have had abduction expe- details in the abduction yes, even a measly cock-
riences don't really know stories the kind that have tail napkin. DQ
 ARTCUMINGS

If, being as one

With your Work
JS the CKitcnon
oP genius
CHROMO Fiction

pounded and echoed

iard
By Ernie Colon and A.
plas-soled boots
off the
the long gray topcoat
A
J. Gamble

patrol's nearing wail

was his. Slater's.

was the signal for

narrow street driving casual Slater to spring into action. That vehicle could
loungers and pedestrians into only be Brad Johnson responding. Slater
the nearest cover. Doorways, jumped out, his weapon already fixed on
back alleys, any space away Terry Johnson. The group of four, alerted by
from that sound became suddenly crowded the siren, were crouching, ready to bolt. Two
with terrified, scattering people. of them did and were cut down by Slater's
The leader signaled and the pounding be- men. One of them was the carrier. Their bod-
came a whisper of carefully placed feet in a ies, already lifeless when they smashed into

softer, still determined pace. and slid along the street, smoked with the
The Sanitation Squad halted abruptly on crackling energy of the Sanitation Squad's
the leader's hand signal. Frank Slater leaned weapons. Terry Johnson and the remaining
against the black wall, his iSO suit scraping rebel put their hands up. Slater laughed out
away rebel graffiti. Idiots, he thought; they know loud, the metallic sound eerie in counterpoint
it comes off easily but they persist in painting to the nearing siren. He smoked the quaking
and spraying their seditious nonsense. rebel next to the Johnson brat. The body
He peered around the wall, cursing the jumped and slid near the other two. Apart
ISO suit for jutting out before he could see. If from briefly closing his eyes and compress-
the pissy little informant was right, there ing his lips, Terry Johnson said nothing and
should be two men under that halo. On a revealed nothing of his feelings or reaction.
foggy damp night like this the street light was Slater smiled approvingly. The boy had balls,
aptly named, its cold bluish light surrounded no question. He was a traitor and a fool, from
by a misty saint's corona. And there he was. a family of fools, but he had balls.
Brad Johnson's baby brother. Johnson him- Slater walked closer as the siren behind
self would be on the scene in minutes, there him stopped, the patrol car's wheels sliding
having been a general police call. on the wet ground. Doors were opening.
There were actually four of them, but all Voices raised. Brad Johnson's booming
the better. Rebels were rebels and he and above the others, "Wait, Slater don't fire!"
his unit were empowered to eradicate where he pleaded. Now, thought Slater. Now. The
deemed necessary. Slater smiled. It usually boy blinked once, then attempted what Slater
was necessary. thought might be a sneer.
Even at this distance, he could see the red The charge blew away Terry Johnson's
eyes of the carrier. His brow furrowed. How head, disintegrating each fragment with a lin-
could the scum rebels stand close to a man gering succession of crackling puffs of blue
so clearly infected with CHROMO? No matter. lights. They died away in tiny sparks bouncing
It was time to get to work. The carrier must along the street. Brad Johnson's initial bellow

be the first There must be no chance

target. of fear and rage echoed once along the now
of his getting away. Slater let his weapon quiet street. A smiling Slater turned to face him.
hang from and made a pattern of
its sling
signals that his men, through long hours of It was a recurring nightmare.
training, understood immediately. The man in Brad Johnson's dream world has become

Painting hy Klaus Dietriek

'A
a monochrome, monotone hell. In that all of us for how long now? was power.
inferno, a twe ve-y ear-old boy, trapped
I And to Brad and hismen had fallen Project Habitat.
in an ISO protective suit far too large the awful task of protecting the general Maelstrom's computer reminded
for him, screamed soundlessly, his populace. Protecting their lives, that is, by him of the time in soft, mellifluous
breath misting the faceplate. As Brad taking the lives of others, Of the afflicted, tones. When Maelstrom grunted, the
clawed at the suiting's controls, trying Sonia Masters had sworn to him that machine, mistaking it for absentmind-
to open to help the boy, a green mist
it she was close, very close, to finding edness, said, "The shareholders' meet-
began to rise in the suit like stagnant the key. Not according to her husband, ing, sir." Maelstrom waved at it

water, slowly gathering around the the celebrated discoverer of the lock to impatiently. "Yes, yes,know. Bishop 1

boy's chin, then lips, then . , , that key, the CHROMO molecular chain, captures pawn. Queen check,"
Every time he awoke from the Masters' brilliant research had culmi- He smiled as the machine whirred,
dream. Brad's hands were still clawing, nated in the exposure ot the elegant trying to make sense of the move, It
hooked like talons, still trying to open pattern now so familiar through con- was simple, really Take the pawn. The
the damned suit. He knew that boy. His stant vidnews bulletins. Culminated. machine for so Maelstrom thought of
face, so clear in the dream, blurred into And then stopped. never giving
it, a name would be
it
something like a police fugitive sketch Somehow, Raymond Masters, su- forced to take the bishop with its king,
on waking, its features not really those perscientisl, winner ot every truly pres- thereby losing its castling privilege. It
of anyone. But he knew that boy. tigious international prize, holder of was a fair trade. Maelstrom felt.
Another drink, he was certain, would some of the most complex and envied He had explained the project to
not help him at all to figure out exactly genetic patents, had come up against Masters in words of many syllables, that
what it was he was up against. But it a solid wall. CHROMO yielded its out- being Masters' mode of understanding
would ease things a bit. Make him feel line, its mathematically elegant pat- and expression. Maelstrom could al-
he was up to it. terns, like a postuhng flirt, then halted most hear the whirring in the man's
To what? all further advances. Stopped at the brain as he tried to log in the sense and
To going up against Dr. Maelstrom. moment of intimacy, the moment of rev- store the strategy for future use.
There. That wasn't so hard, was it? No, elation. The moment of pleasure. Genetix, the entity Maelstrom had
that special blended liquor didn't solve How then could Sonia Masters say fashioned as surely as it were clay in
anything, but it sure made you breathe she was fashioning the key? Was she his hands, was embarking on the
deeply (He eschewed the opti-cube. deluded? She would not lie to Brad, greatest, the most expansive industrial
As was, he'd been using
It more than it Mot now. But if neither lie nor delu- enterprise in the history of the planet
he thought safe. Psychosis was a real sionwhat? Not a real cure, surely Nothing less. Its scope was no longer a
danger with the little old cube.) He Across the city he once loved, lay measurable form. It was beyond
checked the time, A few minutes yet the Sprawl. In its labyrinthine alleys and wealth, beyond power, was ultimate.It

before he had to leave for the share- hovels, the broken streets and filthy And Raymond Masters would be re-
holders' meeting. Brad poured himself poverty, rebels without hope plotted. sponsible.
three more fingers in a wide glass. He pitied them. The military man in him Of course, Masters didn't know that.
After all, Richard Maelstrom had to haled them for their ineptitude, their It was his speech at the shareholders'
piss like anybody else, didn't he? In fact, lack of discipline, of power. conference that would trigger the ex-
Brad remembered a time when he and He checked the time again, Now he plosion. It would mushroom immediately
the all-powerful head of Genetix were was sure of what he would say at the and become The Project. And the Japan-
side by side at the company urinals. meeting when called. It would be short ese, those double-dealing, genetically
The Captain of all Captains of Industry and sweet and they wouldn't like one it self-centered, would-be world leaders,
had cupped his penis so that would it bit, Brad Johnson rubbed at the stub- would atone. Maelstrom liked that.
be safe from Brad's possible gaze. ble on his chin and decided that, two if They would atone.
He took another sip of the amber drinks were this beneficial, why then. To have to explain it to Masters at
bliss. Oh yes. Much better two more . . . any length was a measure of the man's
Brad concentrated on Raymond essential smallness. But he was reach-
Masters, Maelstrom's dogsbody, for
Dr, Dr. Richard Maelstrom's passion was able. The carrot, looming impossibly
all Then, of course, there
his brilliance. chess. Computers having long since large before his astonished eyes,
was Masters' wife, Sonia, What should become grandmaster players, Mael- shielded him from the stick behind. He
he make of her? strom tired easily of draw play, however would, did. submit. ConAmore.
Brad stepped over the ISO window elegant the moves. Three-dimensional His wife Sonia was another matter.
and stared out at the city he'd once chess was his game. He loved sucking Masters, Maelstrom mused, seemed
loved. He looked past his reflection; an in the computer programs, making to have only a tenuous control over her.
athlete going to seed. His hair, though seemingly random and illogical moves Her constant probing into what she called
still full, was lank and lifeless. His and then listening to the low whir as the the key to CHROMO's lock was un-
slacks, not quite freshly pressed. The idiot machine tried desperately to log settling. She was not approachable
once-trim waistline protruded above in the strategy for future use. That ma- through the same avenues of convic-
the loosened belt. chine reminded him of Masters. He tion as her husband. Nor was the used-
The city's pinpoint windows winked chuckled as he thought of Raymond, up hulk of an ex-commander. Brad
like stars on the impossibly high edi- Masters had balked at first. Oh, he Johnson. He was no longer a factor,
fices. How he had once loved that city- ranted a bit about his principles, his excepting insofar as he could still be
He tried to remember how he'd felt, ethics, the moralfiy of it all God help used, public hero that he still was. And
that very long time ago. It was no use. us[ In the end it all came down to the Maelstrom knew just how to use him.
Too much had happened since, Too matter, The matter. The stuff that cannot That was part of his genius.
many killings in the name of protection. be held in the hand, or smelled, or felt. "Shareholders' meeting in 22 min-
Protection from CHBOMO; ttie disease But for Richard Maelstrom it was as utes, 17 seconds," the computer re-
that has inspired abject, deathly fear in >\e as air and just as important: it minded him, It would not do so again,
76 DMNI
having been programmed against what
his owner would consider nagging.
Maelstrom called for the door and
whispered open. He turned and con-
ceded the game.
The machine, insofar as any macfiine
could be, was puzzled, "You con-
cede, sir?" It whirred, then clicked,
then accepted. As a smiling Maelstrom
left to go to the Genetix shareholders'
meeting, the singular turning point of
his remarkable iife, he chuckled at the
machine's inherent stupidity,
surprising malleability.
Spiral remembered his sixth birthday
quite clearly His father overheard him
baby syntax
blurting out as fast as his
would allow, the square root of a
seven-figure number to his astonished
uncle. He beat the boy until restrained
by a horrified family.
Father and son thereafter regarded
each other only peripherally, suspi-
ciously, and as seldom as possible,
After CHROMO felled most
ily Spiral made his plans to leave. Only
his mother kept him from fleeing
now uncrowded home. When
Squads killed her like an animal, her
eyes blazing red with the disease. Spi-
ral left. He felt a horrible guilt that her
death was his freedom. But il was
worth a lot to look over his shoulder on
leaving and see his father staring after
him, stunned and alone.
He made his way easily into the
ranks ol the rebel cadres, They were
cells, really. Five men to a cell. If cap-
tured, they could not tell what they did
not know, however ingenious the per-
suasion, Their connections were cellu-
lar; easily and often
impossible to trace.
His ability to way through
snake his
cyberspace was invaluable. Any de-
gree of classified information was open
to him. He checked the day's haul. A
pass to a conference on hoio-soiids
and their artificial gestation
that was about. Must be good
something. Some profit for him or
cause. He would bhng it to Mr Light-
stone as he did with almost everything
he brought back from the 'space.
Lightstone was the man. He
all happen. Without him there
rebel cause; he was it. A first-class VIP
pass for the Genetix shareholders'
meeting tonight. With it, anyone would
gain instant entry Unchallenged. That
looked real good. Mr. Lightstone would
know what to do with that. He was the
man who was going to make things
right. Though, in some vague way
ral did not want things to be made
right. He liked things the way they
were; with infiltrators, spies, good guys.
bad guys. The Sprawl and the City the
biack wall to be broached with contra-
it band, guards to be bhbed, and above
all what he alone could supply: info.
As he made his circuitous way back
to Lightstone or where Lightstone
. . . might be he glanced at a terminal
way station with the usual longing. It
was one of the new models, one he
hadn't tried to tap into yet. No. Enough
for the day He sorted through the rest
of the take and put neatly into the lit-
it
and its tle boxes. Thai was how he thought of
the processes of his brain: little boxes,
like egg crates, all stuffed with info,
and all instantly accessible
Spiral knew he was important to the
cause. Lightstone himself, his arm around
Spiral's shoulder, would praise him to
the others. Spiral regarded Mr, Light-
stone with great love and something
close to pity. For all his years, his courage
and generalship, Mr, Lightstone was
somewhat naive, He seemed to be
sure of the cause winning, an end to
of his fam- the fighting. There was no end to the
cause, the fight. Any more than there
their was an end to CHROMO, It was the
the disease that kept the struggle going.
Spiral knew. While there was CHROMO,
there would be the fight, the cause, the
good guys and the bad guys.
Spiral was proud to be known by
name to every Squad in and out of the
Sprawl. His capture or death, he knew,
would have meant instant recognition,
first promotion for every man on the team
that brought him down.
He was twelve years old.
Maelstrom considered the enigmatic
Lightstone, leader of the rebel resis-
changed, tance. His legend had grown beyond
reasonable belief. His narrow escapes,
retold and told again throughout the
Sprawl and into the cily, gave cre-
dence to the biggest part of his
mythos: that Lightstone was part holo,
part machine, wholly untouchable.
whatever There would be time enough to deal
for with him and the rebels. They served a
the purpose, after all. Were it in Mael-
strom's power to magically vaporize
them all instantly, he would not,
Maelstrom watched the glittering
made it lights of the city blurring past the limo
was no window. The chauffeur occasionally
glanced at the tratf-ease screen as it
computed the time it would take to
reach the Genetix auditorium. Cruising
the VIP lane made the trip easier, though
there was some traffic this evening.
Still, Lightstone was a bit beyond
control Too many recent casualties
Spi- among the Sanitation Squads. Morale
was slipping. As good as Frank Slater
was, he was not the leader Brad John-
son used to be. 'Used to be' being the
operative term. Yet Slater had what
Maelstrom most needed: an amoral fe-
rocity that could be turned, like a white-
hot torch, against whatever target it
was directed. Slater seemed to hate
everything outside of himself with a
paranoid simplicity, The man was in-
valuable, A great tool. Like all tools,
useful. Until the day they were no
longer useful. Then . . .
Lightstone stared at the pass with dis-
belief.
The boy had outdone himself.
Spiral,
Lightstone doubted the cause could
continue in its present escalation of
harrying the Maelstrom structure with-
out the gifted boy The Genetix share-
holders' meeting tonight was no mere
bean counting profil-and-loss affair.
Though some members might have ex-
pected it to be just a self-congratula-
tory gathering, the atmosphere, the feel
of the thing, told him otherwise. Some-
thing was up. Something big Everyone
who was anyone would be there
tonight. Including, Lightstone mused,
some previously uninvited guests,
courtesy of our gifted young Spiral.
Frank Slater's dream would come true,
Brad Johnson would fall into his
hands, along with the Masters bitch.
There is injustice after all. Slater chuck-
led, winking at one of his men. The man
nodded uneasily The others did their best
to ignore the weird, metallic chuckles
emanating from Frank Slater's ISO suit.
Brad Johnson's brother, sent out to
kill Lightstone
a prime assignment
given to baby brother and better han-
dled by himself had been turned in-
stead into a traitor by that freakish
entity. What infernal incantations the
evil Lightstone had breathed into that
little man's ear no one could tell, and
Slater could not guess at. What a plea-
sure what a delight it had been to
waste the little bastard, Then to see big
brother boo-hooing over the corpse
ah, that had been even better, It had
taken three men to hold the raging
Brad back from Slater. Or at least,
thought Slater, that was how it ap-
peared. Had their positions been re-
versed. Slater knew it would take more
than three men to stop him from what-
ever damage he wished to inflict. When
Johnson had calmed down sufficiently
and the men had released him, staying
close by at the ready, Johnson had
threatened legal action. Slater almost
spit into his faceplate in utter disgust.
The whole damned family was like
to like; self-nghteous poseurs, ineffec-
tual as eunuchs. Johnson's appoint-
ment, for example, to the theater of war
where he had 'distinguished' himself
CONII.'JJEOONPAGEHl 77
 m-

NIIMki-w
 " "

In the mirror I saw her eyes to be treated like

asphalt parking lot, and it "This is the latest batch of
narrow, her mouth tighien, I edge of the
clutched the blended its three floors har- phase space diagrams,"
The other woman turned from dresser, which was both a moniously with a low hillside Fran said. "The computer
the window, laughing, one scratched pressed-board whose wooded lines were just finished them haven't I

slim graceful arm pushing "reproduction" and a pol- repeated in horizontal even phnted them yet."
back a tendril of chestnut hair, ished cherrywood lowboy. stretches of brick and wood. crouched beside her to
I

Diane skinned her brown Two perfume bottles floated The poster-cluttered lobby peer at the terminal.
hair back from her face. "Is it in front of me: yellow plastic was full of hurried students "Don't look any more dis-
too much to ask, Jack, sprayboitle and clean-lined trying to see harried advis- organized to me than the
honey, that just once after blown glass. squeezed my
I ers, and it was a marble last bunch,"
we mal^e love you don't go eyes shut. The ghostly Diane atrium where scholars talked "Nor to me, either, unfor-

rushing off like there's a disappeared in the act of eagerly about the mind of tunately. Same old, same
three-alarm fire? Just once?' sauntering, slim and as- man. walked down the cor-
I
old." She laughed: in chaos
c'dn't answer. sured, toward the bathroom. 'Idor toward my cubicle, one is no same old,
theory, there
same old. The phase space
diagrams were infinitely
complex, never repeating,
ivcin was the only
iIIbh g

^D
without control.
But not completely. The
was
1 person I'd seen control there, not readily
a key we just didn't
visible,

tj^gU who came close to

recognize with the mathe-
matics we had. Yet,
An ideal no one had seen,
"I keep thinking that your

^91
!l
matching what
she shonld have been.
\
young mind will pick up
something I've missed,"
Fran said, "I'll make you a
copy of these. Plus, Pyotr
Solenski has published
some new work in Berlin that

"I mean, how do you "

don't even really look of a row allotted to teaching I think you should take a
makes me feel?
think that at me, not when we make assistants and post-docs. look at. Idownloaded it from
Slam-bam-thank-you, love or" But Dr, Frances the net and e-mailed you."
ma'am. We have an actual Eyes shut, groped for
I Schraeder's door was open, I
nodded, but didn't an-
relationship here, we've the bedroom door, and I couldn't resist- swer. For the first time today,
been going out for three "Jack!" She sat at her terminal, calm flowed thrc ugh r

months, it doesn't seem a lot slammed the doors,

I
working, and when I soothing me.
knocked on the doorjamb
to
love
ask that after
you don't just
we make both of them, and left the
apartment before Diane (scarred metal, ghostly
Calm,
Rightness.
I didn't interrupt, I
couldn't. could follow. With her sloppy graceful moldtng), she Numbers.
The dizziness was strong anger, her overweight looked up and smiled, Fran had done5 good,
this time; soon the nausea nakedness, her completely "Jack! Oome look at thisl" undistinguished,
would follow. Sex did that. justified weeping. I came m, with so much pure mathematics all her life.
The intensity, Diane ranted, relief my eyes prickled. The For the last few years she
jerking herself to a kneeling Outside was better, I drove material Fran's long, age- and as her graduate stu-
I,

position on the bed, framed my Escort to campus. The spotted fingers were held
dent had worked in the
by lumpy maroon window other car, the perfectly engi- poised over her keyboard, precise and austere world of
opened a crack to a
curtains neered driving machine with and the ideal Fran's long, iterated function theory,
neighbor's peeling frame the sleek and balanced age-spotted fingers echoed where the result of a given
house and weedy garden. lines, shimmered in and out them. The ideal Fran's while equation is recycled as the
Across the room the other around me, but the vertigo hair was fuller, but no whiter, starting value of the next
Diane stood framed by crim- didn't return, I'd never got- and both were cut in simple repetition of the same equa-

son silk drapehes opened a ten very intense about cars, short caps. The material tion. If you do that, the re-

crack to a meliowed-wood and over the years I'd Fran wore glasses, but both sults are predictable: the
cottage riotous with climbing learned to handle the double Frans' bright blue eyes, a lit- sequences will converge on
roses. She blew me a light- state of anything that wasn't tle sunken, shone with the a given set of numbers. No
hearted kiss. Her eyes too intense. The rest I same alert tranquility. matter what initial value you
glowed with understanding. avoided. IVlostiy. She was the only person plug into the equation, with
The nausea came, The Aaron Fielding Fac- I'd ever seen who came enough iterations you end
"
can'; seem to under- ulty Office Building jutted close to matching what she up at the same figures,
stand how it makes me feel boxlike three stories from the should have been. called atlractors. Every
80 OMNI


equation can generate a set of attrac-
tors,which iterations converge on lil<e
homing pigeons
nests
you raise the value plugged
Until
into the equation past a point called
the Feigenbaum number. Then the se-
of the terminal as could, and printed
I stucco) for students to wait for faculty,
out the last batch of phase space dia- or each other, or enlightenment. One
flying back to their grams and spent time with those, and chair blocked fully a third of my door-
went over our work yet again, and read way apparently shifted there by the girl
Pyotr Solenski's work, and then could I who sat, head down, drawing in a note-
no longer put off returning to the mater- book, My headache was the awful kind
ial world. that clouds vision, banged my knee I

quences produced lose all regularity. into a corner of the chair (graffiti on var-

You can no longer find any pattern, At- As soon as walked I

Into
tractors disappear. The behavior of Set Theory my nausea returned.
even fairly simple equations becomes Mid October. Two more months of
chaotic. The pigeons fly randomly, teaching this class, twice a week, 90
blind and lost. minutes a session, to keep my fellow-
Or do they? ship, didn't know if
I could do it. But I
Introduc^on to nish on cheap pine; clean hand-
stained hardwood). My vision cleared
but my knee throbbed painfully
"Do you mind not blocking the door-
way Miss?"
"Sorry," She didnt look up, or stop

Fran like dozens of other pure without the fellowship, couldnt work I drawing.
mathematicians around the world witti Fran, 'please move the damned chair."
looked at all that chaos, and sorted Thirty-two faces bobbed in front of She hitched it sideways, never rais-
through it, and thought she glimpsed me, with 32 shimmering ghostly behind ing her eyes from the paper. The chair
an order to the pigeons' flight. A them. Different, So different. Jim Mulc- banged along the hall floor, clanging
chaotic order, a controlled random- ahy: a sullen slouching 18-year-old with onto my throbbing brain. Beside her,
ness. We'd been looking at nonlinear acned face and resentful eyes, flunking the ottiergirl shrugged humorously, in

differential equations, and at their al- out

and behind him, ttie quiet as- charming self-deprecation.
tractors, which cause iterated values sured Jim, unhamstrung by wfiatever forced myself, "Are you waiting for
I

not to converge but to diverge. States had caused that terrible resentfulness, me? To see about Ihe class?"
which start out only infinitesimally sep- whatever kept him from listening to me "No," Still she didn't look up, rude
arated go on to diverge more and more or studying the text, Jessica Harris: even for a student. pushed past her, I

and more and more, moving to-

. , .
straight As, thin face pinched by anxi- and my eyes fell on her drawing paper
ward some hidden values called, aptly
enough, strange attractors. Pigeons
from the same nest are drawn, through
Attractors disappear. The behavior of even
seeming chaos, to points we can iden-
tify but not prove the existence of. fairly simple equations becomes
Fran and had a tentative set of I

equations for
Only tentative. Something wasn't
those idealized points.
chaotic. The pigeons fly randomly, blind
right.We'd overlooked something,
something neither of us could see. It and lost. Or do they?
was there I knew but we couldn't
it

numbers; a table
see it. When we
we'd have proof did, ety, thrown into panic whenever she It was full of for bi-

that any ptiysical system showing an didn't instantly comprehend some nomial distribution of coin-tossing
ultradependence on initial conditions point and behind her, the confident probabilities, with x as the probability
must have a strange attractor buried Jessica who could wait a minute, study of throwing n heads, divided by the
somewhere its structure. The impli-in the logic, take pleasure in her eventual probability of throwing an equal num-
cations wouldbe profound for chaos mastery of it. Sixty-four faces, and 64 ber of heads and The columns tails.

mathematics, for fluid mechanics, for pieces ol furniture in two rooms, and were neatly labeled. She was filling in
weather control. sometimes when I
turned away to the the numbers as rapidly as her pen
For me, two blackboards (my writing firm on the could write, to seven decimal places.

loved looking for that equation.

I
pristine surface, and quavery over From memory, or mental calculation?
Sometimes thought could glimpseI I
it, dust-filled scratches), even turning I blurted, "Most people don't do
behind the work we were doing, almost away wasn't enough to clear my head, that."

visible to me. But not often. And the "The students complain you don't "Is that an observation, an insult, or
truth I hadn't told Fran, couldn't tell her, look at them when you talk," my de- a compliment?"
was that didn't need to
I find it, not in partment chair had said, "And you All could see of both
I girls were the

theway she did She was driven by the don't make yourself available after bent tops of their heads: lank dirty
finest kind of intellectual hunger, a class to deal with their problems." blonde, feathery golden waves.
true scientist, He'd shimmered behind himself, She said, "Because if it's an obser-
I just wanted the peace and calm of a wise leader and an overworked vation, then consider that I said, 'I al-

looking. The same calm I'd found over bureaucrat. ready know that,'"

the years In simple addition, in algebra, Nobody had any questions. Nobody The vertigo started to take me.
in calculus, in Boolean logic. In num- stayed after class. Nobody in the first "If it's an insult, then I said, Tm not
bers, which were not double state but 32 students had any comments on infi- most people.'"
just themselves, no other set of inte- nite sets, and the second 32 I couldn't put out one hand to steady myself
I

gers or constants or fractals lying be- hear, couldn't reach, against the wall,
hind these ones, better and fuller and left the classroom with a raging
I
"And if it's a compliment, said, I

more fulfilled. Mathematics had its own headache, and almost tripped over a 'Thanks.' guess." I

arbitrary assumptions' but no shad- student in the hall. The hallway pulsed. Students
ows on the cave wall. Chairs lined the corridor walls surged toward me, 64 of them, except
So spent as long with Fran in front
I
(water-stained plaster; lively-textured that was only supposed to teach 32
I
 " "

and they weren't the ones who really So what? Just don't give in to it." printouts. The ideal Fran, too, looked
wanted to learn, they were warped and a more complicated different from the day before. Her skin
deformed versions of what they should than
think"I it's little

glowed from within, almost too strongly,

have been and couldn't teach them I "It's not. In fact, it's real simple. Just as if a flashlight burned behind its pale

because hated them too much. For

I do what you want, anyway And don't fine-grained surface.
not being what they could have been. whine." was rhetorical. Jack. know
"That 1

For throwing off my inner balance, the "I'm not" what the system was before it di-
delicate metaphysical ear that coordi- "You are. Just don't let the double
verged the equations are there on the
nates reality with ideal with accep- vision stop you from trying anything desk. But this one looks different.
tance. For careening past the you want to. / don't." She glared bel- See here ."
. . . . . .

Feigenbaum number, into versions of
themselves where attraction was re-
placed by turbulent chaos. ... fell
heavily against the wall, gulping
"Hey!" The girl looked up. She had
a scrawny bony face with a too-wide
mouth, and a delicate, fine-boned face
with rosy generous lips. But mostly
ligerently. Behind her, the other Mia ra-
diated determination tempered by
I acceptance.
air. "Mia, I do
Math, My dissertation. Teaching." Not
that wanted to be doing that,
I
"Good," she snapped, and looked
I over my shoulder, "Double vision
She pointed and explained. Nonlin-
ear systems with points that start out
very close together tend to diverge
try to do the things I want. from each other, into chaos. But there
was something odd about these partic-
ular diagrams: they were chaotic, as al-
ways around a strange attractor, but in
nonpatterns hadn't seen before. I I

saw her eyes. They looked at me with doesn't have to defeat us if we don't let couldn't quite grasp the difference. Al-
conventional concern, and then at the it." most, but not quite.
wall behind me, and then back at me, said, "Have you ever found any
I said, "Where are those original
I

and shock ran over me like gasoline others like us?" What did my ideal self equations?"
fire, The girl reached out an arm to look like? What strengths could she "There, On that paper no, that
steady me, but her gaze had already see on his face? one."
gone again past me, as mine did "No, you're the only one. I thought I "You're using Arnfelser's Constant?
everywhere but in the mirror, inexorably was alone." Why?"
"
drawn to what had never seen: the
[ "Me, too. But if there's two of us. "Look at the equations again
did, and this time
I
recognized I

She sat across from me, and the other them, even though subatomic particle
physics is not my field. James Arn-
felserhad won the Nobel two years
Mia sat behind her, green eyes ago for his work on the behavior of
electron/positron pairs during the first

30 seconds of the universe's Fran

hopeful in her lovely face. Hopeful that was mucking around with the
life,

chaos of
creation.

she was no longer alone. looked at the phase space dia-

I

grams again.
there could be more. Maybe we She said, "You can almost see it,
should" can't you? Almost . , . see , .
,"

"Damn Jack, it. at least look at me "Fran!"

"It affects you differently than me," IVlia when you're talking to me!" She had her hand to her midriff.
said over coffee in the student cafete- Slowly my gaze moved back to her "It's nothing, Jack. Just indigestion on
ria. I'd agreed to go there only because face, Her physical face. Her mouth top of muscle tension on top of sleep-
Itwas nearly empty "I don't get nause- gaped in anger; her eyes had nar- lessness. was up all night on those I

ated or light-headed just get mad, It's I rowed to ugly slits. My gaze moved equations."
such a fucking waste." back, down."
"Sit
She sat across from me, and the "Stop it, you assholel Stop it!" "No, I'm fine. Really I am." She
other Mia sat behind her, green eyes "Don't call me names, Mia." smiled at me, and the skin around her
hopeful in her lovely face. Hopeful that "Don't tellme what to do! You have eyes, a mass of fine wrinkles, stretched
we could share this, that she was no no me what to do! You're no tauter And behind her, the other Fran
longer alone, that might be able to I
right to
different from
tell
didn't smile. At all. She looked at me,

end her loneliness. The physical Mia I

said, "Why would i look at you if 1 and had the insane idea that some-
1

didn't look hopeful. She looked just as could look at her?" how, for the first time, she saw me.
furious as she said she was, She stood up so abruptly that her It was the first time I'd ever seen

"Nine times out of ten, Jack, people chair fell over. Then she was gone. them diverge.
could become their ideal selves, or at put my hands over my eyes, blot-
I "Fran, want you to see a doctor"I

least a whole lot fucking closer, if ting out all sight. Of everything. "You're good to be so concerned.
they just tried. They're just too lazy But I'm fine. Look, Jack, here on the
or screwed up to put some backbone "What was this system before it started diagram ,"
, ,

into it," to diverge?" Fran said. Both Frans lit up with the precise
I looked away from her "For me," I She held her hands a phase in pleasure of numbers. And out of I
said hesitantly, "I guess it's mostly the space diagram hadn't seen before. I cowardice, out of relief let them.
unfairness of that's such a burden
it Her eyes sparkled. Even so. there was
Seeing the ideal has interfered with something heavy around her mouth, ". . . a thing in this
can't understand
every single thing I've ever wanted to something that wasn't in the Fran be- fucking course."
do with my life." Except mathematics. hind her, and for a minute was so star- I The voice was low, male, the words
She squinted at me. "Unfairness? tled couldn't concentrate on the
I distinct but the speaker not identifiable.

B2 OMNI


I turned from writing equations on the medical van, and they were carrying
board, Ttiirty-two/sixty-four faces swam Fran out on a stretcher, her long-fin-
in front ol me. ''Did one of you say gered hand dangling limply over the it was, and grieved it with courage and

sometfiing?" side, and nobody would listen to me grace? Who would have figured out the
Silence. A few girls iooked down at explain thai the terrible thing was not best way to cope with his problems
tfieir notebooks. Tine rest of tfie stu- that she wasn't moving but that lying on from a healthy sense of balance unde-
dents stared back at me, stony, I the stretcher so quietly were not two stroyed by knowing exactly what he
turned back to tfie board and wrote an- Frans, as there should have been, but could never, ever, ever measure up to?
other half equation. only one. Only one. I'd be damned if I'd drink to him,
", . , fucking moron wfio couldn't "To Fran," I said, and downed it

teacfi a dog to piss." A different voice. I didn't go to the funeral, straight, and went on downing it

My hand, holding the chalk, shook. I I took Fran's last set of diagrams, straight until I couldn't see the other,
went on writing, and copied her files off her hard drive, better room lurking behind this one,
", , , shouldn't be allowed in front of and packed a bag. Before checked I

a classroom," This time, a girl, into the Morningside Motel on Route Even drunk, you dream.
turned around again. My stomach
I 64, left messages on Diane's answer-
I I didn't know that, I'd expected the
churned The students stared back at mg machine, and the department hangovers, and the throwing up, and
me. They were all in on this, or at least chair's, and my landlady's, the terrible, blessed blackouts, I'd ex-
"
tacitly complicit. don't want la see you again. It's pected the crying jag. And the emo-
heard my voice shake, "If you have
I not your fault, butlmeanit I'm sorry" tional pain, like a dull drill. But I'd never
any complaints about how this course "I resign my teaching fellowship, been drunk for four days before. I'd
is being taught, you are advised to lake and my status as a post-doc at this thought that when slept the pain I

them up with the department chair, or university." would go away, into oblivion, didn't I

to express them on the course evalua- "My rent is paid through the end ol know I'd dream.
tion form distributed at the end of the the month. I will not be returning. dreamed about numbers.
I

semester, Ivleanwhlie, we have addi- Please pack my tfiings and send them They swam in front of me, pounded
tional work to cover," turned back to I to my sister, COD, at this address. the inside of my eyelids, chased me
the board, Thank you." through dark and indistinct land-
fucking prick
".
, , who can't make I
bolted the motel door, unwrapped scapes. They hunted me with knives
anything clear," two bottles of Jack Daniels, and raised and guns and fire. They hurt. didn't I

My chalk stopped, in ttie middle of my glass to the mirror wake screaming, or disoriented, but I

writing an integer. couldn't make it 1 But no toast came. To him? Who did wake sweating, and in the middle
move again, No matter how hard con- I would not have been doing this stupid of the night I
hung over the toilet, puk-
centrated, the chalk wouldn't complete
the number,
".
trying to make us flunk so he
, ,

looks bigger,"
Slowly turned to face the class. I

They sal in front of me, slumping or

smirking or grinning inanely. Empty
faces. Stupid faces. A few embar-
rassed faces. Fourth-rate minds, inter-
ested only in getting by, ugly gaping
maws into which we were supposed lo
stuff the brilliance of Maxwell and
Boitzmann and von Neumann and Rus-
sell and Arnfelser. So they could masti-

cate it and spit it on the floor.

And behind them , , , behind
them . . ,

"Get out," I said.

One hundred twenty-eight eyes
opened wide,
"You heard mel" I heard myself
screaming. "Get out of my classrooml
Get out of this universityl You don't
belong here, it's criminal that you're
here,none of you are worth the flame
to setyou on fire! Get out! You've di-
verged too far from what you what . . .

."
you . ,

A few boys in the front row saun-

tered out, A girl in the back started to
cry Then some of them were yelling at
me, shrieking, only the shrieking wasn't
in my classroom, it was in the hall,

down the hall, it was sirens and bells

and outside the window, an emergency
ing, while numbers swam around me meant, "How the fuck did you get in away. Drawing every fiber of my body
on the wavering, double floor. The here''" into it, hauled myself off the bed and
I

numbers wouldn't go away. And neither "Well, didn't you see how got in I toward the bathroom. My stomach
would tine thing was trying to drink I here? Weren't you even conscious?" churned and the rooms wavered It
myself out of. No matter how drunk I She walked closer and went on staring took two hands to grope along the wall
got. the double vision stayed. Except at me, in soiled underwear, the empty to the shower.
for the equations, and they hurt just as bottle on the floor. Something moved The water hit me, hard and cold and
much as the polished floor couldn't I behind their eyes. slinging. I
stood under it until was I

touch, the cool sheets couldn't feel, I "How did you find me?" it hurt to shivering, and took that long to real-
it

the competent Jack couldn't be. I speak. ize I still had my briefs on. Bending
Maybe the equations hurt more. They "Hacked your Visa account. You put over to strip them off was torture. My
were Fran's. this dump on it." toothbrush scraped raw the inside of
Take Arnfelser's Constant. Plug it "Go away, IVlia." my mouth, and the nerves in my brain.
into a set of equations describing a "When I'm good and ready Jesus, I didn't even care that when stag- I

noniinear system . . . look at you." gered naked into the bedroom, Mia
Phase space diagrams. Diverging, "So don't." was still there.
diverging, gone. A smalt difference in I
tried to roll over, but couldn't, so I She said, "Your body is closer to his
initial slates and you gel widely differ- closed my eyes. than your face."
ing slates, you gel cfiaos , . .
Mia said, you had "1in didn't think it "Get out, Mia."
Tate Arnfelser's Constant Use it as you. No, really didn't." Her tone was
1 "I told you, when I'm ready. Jack,

r Let X. equal , . .
so stupid such a mix of ignorance there aren't any more of us. At least not
A small difference in inilial stales. A and some sort of stupid feminine that know of. Or that you do. We can't
I

Fran wtio diverged only a small idealization of macho asshole behav- fight like this."
amount, a Jack who . . .
ior that opened my eyes again. She
I I in my overnight bag, un-
groped
Take Arnfelser's equation . . . was smiling. touched for four days, for fresh under-
almost saw it. But not quite.
I "Get. Out. Now." wear. Mia seemed different than she
wasn't good enough to see it. Only
I "Not fill you tell me what this is all had the cafeteria: gentler, less abra-
in

sive, although she looked the same. I

The knock on the door woke me, didn't care which or who she was.
"We need each other," Mia said,
and now there was a touch of despera-
sounding like a battering ram. Someone tion in her voice. didn't turn around I

"Jack listen to me, at least. See
me!"
was picking the lock. I lay on the "1 see you," said. "And don't want
t I

to. Not you, not anybody. Get out. Mia."

bed and watched, my anger mounting. "No,"

"Haveit your way."

he was. about. Is it Dr. Schraeder? They told pulled on my clothes, gritted my

I

poured another whiskey.

I me you two were pals." teeth to get on my shoes, left them un-
Fran. The pain started again. And tied. braced myself lo push past her.
I

The knock on the door woke me. It the numbers. She stood in the exact center of the
sounded like a battering ram. "That's it, isn't it, Jack? She was your room, her hands dangling helplessly at
"Get out. paid at the desk this
I
friend, not just your adviser. I'm sorry" her sides. Behind her the other Mia
morning don't want maid service!"
I [ said, "She was the only person I stood gracefully her drooping body full
The shouting transferred the batter- ever met who was what she was sup- of sorrow. But the physical Mia, face
ing ram to my head, but the knocking posed to be." twisted In an ugly grimace, was the
"Yeah? Well, then, I'm really sorry only one looking at me.
Someone started picking the lock, I'm not what I'm supposed to be, I stopped dead.
I

lay on the bed and watched, my

I
know. And you sure the hell aren't. Al- They always both looked at me. At
anger mounting. The chain was on the though, you know you look closer . . . the same time, Everybody's both; Mia,
door But when the lock was picked the to him this morning than you ever did Diane, Fran, the department chair, my
door opened the length of the chain, on campus. More . . . real." students, Where one looked, the other
and a hand inserted a pair of wirecut- couldn't shove her out the door,
I
looked. Always.
ters. Two pairs of wireculters, physical and couldn't stop her talking, and
I I Mia said, more subdued than had I

and ideal. Four hands. didn't even I couldn't roll over without vomiting. So I ever heard her "Please don't leave me
move. If the motel owner wanted me, brought my arm up and placed it alone with this Jack. need you." I . . .

he could have me. Or the cops. had I across my eyes. The other Mia looked across the
reached some sort of final decimal "Don't cry, Jack. Please don't cry" room, not over my shoulder. Not at him.
place I simply didn't care. "I'm not" At .what? . .

The chain, cheap lightweight links, "On second thought, do cry. Why From a small difference in initial
gave way, and the door opened, ivlia the fuck nof?Your friend is dead. Go slates you get widely differing states
walked in. ahead and cry you want to!" And she if with repeated iterations. Diverging, di-
"Christ, Jack. Look at you." knelt beside me, despite what must I
verging, chaos . . . and somewhere in

lay sprawled across the bed, and

I smell like and look like, and put her there, the strange attractor The means
both Mias wrinkled their noses at the arms around me while, hating every to make sense of it.

smell. second of cried. it, I

And just like that, saw the pattern I

I said, even though it wasn't what 1 When was done, pushed her
1 I in the phase space diagrams. saw I

34 OMMI
the equations. ical system showing an uitradepen- States are that close.
"Jack? Jack!" dence on initial conditions must have a She smiles at everyone. People are
"Just let me . . . write them strange attractor buried somewhere tn drawn to her as to a magnet; she treats
down , ,
,"
its structure, The implications for un- them as if their real selves are their
But there wasn't any chance I'd tor- derstanding chaos are profound. But ideal ones.
get them. They were there, so clear it's not easy to publish this kind of inno- For now.
and obvious and perfect, exacliy what vation when you no longer have even a The crucial characteristic about
Fran and had been searching for,
i
post-doc position at a decent univer- chaotic systems is that they change
Mia cried, "You can't just leave! sity. Even though Fran's name will go unpredictably. Not as unpredictably as
We're the only two peopie like this!" first on the article before the Schraeder Equations, but
tinished scribbiing the equations
1 may just put it out on the Internet,
I still unpredictably Once you fall into

and straightened. My head ached, my Without prior peer review, without copy- the area past the Feigenbaum number,
stomach wanted to puke, my intestines right protection, without comment. Out slates converge or diverge chaotically.
prickled and squirmed. My eyes were onto the unstructured, shifting realities Tomorrow Mia could see something
so puffy couid bareiy see out of them.
I of the net. After all, don't really need
I
else. Or could,
I

But saw her, looking at me with her

i
formal attention, don't really want it.
I
have no idea what the ideal Mia
I

scared bravado, and saw the other I I have what I wanted: relief. The was looking at when she gazed across
one, not looking at me at all. Diverging. other faces other rooms, other build- the motel room, away from both me
She was right we were the only two ings, other gardens are receding and him, When you are not the shadow
people like this, linked in our own from me now, I catch only glimpses of on the cave wall but the genuine ideal,
chaotic system. And the states could I them out of the corner of my eye, di- what is the next state?
see were diverging, minished in size by the distance be- don't want to know. But
1 doesn't it

"No," got out, just before

I had to I tween us, and getting smaller all the matter whether or not I want it If that state
go back into the bathroom, "There time. Diverging toward their own of life comes into being, then it does,
aren't two. Soon only one of you." , . . strange attractors. and all we can do is chase it through

She stared at me like was crazy, all I It's not the same for Mia, When she the chaos of dens and labyrinths and
the time was puking, And the other
I said at the Morningside Motel that I underground caves, trying to pin it mo-
Jack was doing God knows what. looked more like the ideal Jack than mentarily with numbers, as our states
I didn't really care. ever before, it wasn't a compliment to diverge from what we know toward
my unshaven frowziness. For her, the something cannot even imagine, and
I

I haven't published the equations yet, phase space diagrams are converg- don't want lo
I will, of course. They're too impor- ing. She can barely discern the ideal Although, of course, that too may
tant not to publish: proof that any phys- separate from the physical now: the change, DO

CREDITS
Page 2, clockwise from top: Joseph
Daniel Fielder, Adrian Day, Chris
Sprmgman, Amy Gulp: Page 4:
Rosemary Webber; Page 8: Kun Wang;
Page 10, top and bottom; Bob Lorenze:
Page 10, middle: courtesy of Publisher,
Page 12: Tim Hussey; Page 14: Andy
Washnik; Page 16: Courtesy of
California Institute at Technology: Page
23: Roland Cat; Page 24, top: David
Scharf/Peter Arnold Inc.: Page 24, bot-
tom: John Lund/Tony Stone Images;
Page 25, left: Super Stock; Page 25,
right: Aviation Week/Gamma Liaison;
Page 26, top: A. Giddings, E. Krislof,
W.
Lange, R. Grieve, R. Lutz/Rutgers
University; Page 26, bottom: Bruce
Forster/Tony Stone Images: Page 27,
top: Ron Stroud/Masterfile; Page 27,
bottom: Etienne De Mai glaive/Gamma
Liaison: Pages 36-38: Slanislaw
Fernandes; Pages 42-43: Sandra Ivliller;
Page 57: Adrian Day; Pages 58-64:
Dimaccio; Page 65, top: Chris
rvioore/Arl Bank London; Page 65, bot-
tom: Ansen Seale: Page 67: Chris
Ivloore/Artbank London; Page 68;
Dimaccio: Pages 70 and 72; H.R.
Giger; Pages 106-107: Courtesy
Barbara Gladstone Gallery. New York:
Page 116 and 119; Bob "Do you have one so simple even a parent could beat it?"
120: tVlcKenzie Photography.
 lajTERV/ieiAJ

A (SEMI) PRIVATE CONVERSATION WITH

THE HEADMAN OF
THE CYPHERPUNK REVOLUTION
Depressed for weeks, worried his plagued him for a decade, Diffie cared
career was going nowhere, he about hidden codes, ciphers, crypto-
writing
mulled over a set oi apparently un- grams because he had a passionate in-

solvabte problems. Otherwise unemployed, terest in [keeping people's private lives

Whitfield Diffie was a househusband about private, A Sixties radical with blond hair
to cook dinner for his wife, when he sat down flowing down his back, he saw cryptogra-
in the living room of their borrowed quarters phy was Ihe only way for citizens to protect
to ponder once more the ideas that had themselves from government snooping. He

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER SPRINGMANN

also knew, even in the early Seventies, that cryptograpiiy mathematics and always a poor student, Diffie graduated
was vital to home shopping, digital money, automated of- from MIT with a math degree in 1965. To avoid the Vietnam
fices, and other business-related activity planned for the in- War, he took draft-deferred jobs as a computer programmer
formation highway. Society could never slop doing business at MIT and then Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
face to face and move into computerized negotiations with- Diffie's early interest in cryptography was rekindled when his
out the invention of digital signatures electronic "handwrit- boss, Al pioneer John McCarthy, was asked in 1972 to look
ing" as unique as that produced by pen and inl^. And on that into security on the ARPAnet. the military communications
spring day in 1975, Diffie suddenly saw how to do it. The so- network that latergrew into the Internet.
lution flitted across his mind, left momentarily, then came Diffie eventually quit his jOb to become the world's first

back in "a real adrenaline rush of excitement," In a brilliant public cryptographer. This began with car trips back and
stroke he solved two of the biggest problems in modern forth across the continent, wilh stops to buttonhole any sci-
cryptography, and, as a bonus, realized for the first time entist willing to talk about cryptography One conversation
they were related. led back to Stanford and Martin Hellman. a young professor
In classical cryptography, one secret key
used both to is of electrical engineering. From 1975 to 1978, Diffie and Hell-
encrypt and decrypt messages. Diffie saw that this key man co-auihored a series of now-classic papers on public
could be split; Half would be public knowledge; half would key cryptography. In 1992, the Swiss Federal Institute of
be kept secret. This idea of separate but mathematically re- Technology awarded Diffie an honorary doctorate in recog-
lated keys allowed "two magical things" to happen. People nition of his creation: public key cryptography.

can send you messages, encrypted with your public key
that can be read only with your private key. Or conversely,
you can send out cryptograms that can be read by any-
body, but recognizable as only coming from you. The first
realization solves the problem of making cryptography avail-
able to everyone. The second allows for digital signatures.
Split-key or public key cryptography has been adopted by
companies ranging from AT&T to Apple, and Diffie's crypto-
graphic protocols underlie the security measures incorpo-
Secret writing dates back io Egyptian hieroglyphics. Codes
and ciphers have always been jealously guarded secrets of
state until Diffie and fellow cryptocommandos, who call them-
selves cypherpunks, began developing expertise on their
own. A field traditionally reserved for spies, soldiers, and dip-
lomats is now a hot topic on the Internet, with public access
to cryptography being the latest battle cry in the information
revolution, "For the past few years I've made my living out of
politics," says Diffie, who writes position papers and testifies

rated into all modern computer networks, before congressional committees. His latest cause is the
Diffie met his wife at the door that evening with a sober Clipper chip, an attempt by the U.S. government to embed
look on his face. "I've just discovered a very important idea," cryptographic hardware into the nation's telecommunica-
he said. "I don'l think our lives will ever be the same again." tions channels. These chips will contain back doors allowing
Diffie, who describes his life as "a model of how not to the government to eavesdrop on telephone calls and com-
get things done at the right lime," was born to Campbellite puter messages. Diffie argues that Americans must oppose
in 1944. But he grew up in a mainly
Southern Baptist parents this effort to put the cryptographic genie back in the bottle.

Jewish section Queens, New York, where his father taught

of Our talks began in Diffie's office at Sun Microsystems's
Spanish and Latin American history at City College and his campus in San Mateo and ended at his second office in
mother worked as an independent scholar on the French downtown Palo Alio. At dinner Diffie's wife, Egyptologist
woman of letters Madame de Sevigne. Largely self-taught in Mary Fischer, recounted with tears in her eyes the scene of
B8 OMNI
coming home to hear of her husband's
great discovery "He was right. Our
lives were not the same after that."
Thomas Bass
Omni: How do yoj secure
phones In North America''
Diffie: I'd mulled this problem over
my mind for five years,
to Stanford in 1969,
about a seemingly unrelated problem:
How do you conduct business using
home computer terminals? didn't see
how to create a paperless office without
having what we now call "digital signa-
tures" on your electronic documents.
Omni: How did you solve the problem
of digital signatures?
Diffie; I was aware
mechanisms. The first, now
thentication
used to protect the password table in
the UNIX time-sharing system, employs
"one-way functions," These are easy to
compute in one direction, but hard in
the other. The second
lenge and response. Military fire-con-
trol radars send out a randomly
selected challenge and only friendly
know how to encrypt the chal-
aircraft
lenge correctly and return it to the
radar for verification.
One of these protects you against
somebody studying the lock and figur-
ing out how to make a key; the other
against eavesdroppers on the channel
watching the process and knowing
how to repeat it, was trying to com-
bine botfi systems in one package
when I saw thai was possit^le to de-
it
sign a mechanism that could verify a
response to a challenge, even though
it could not have figured out the re-
sponse. This is what we now call a dig-
ital signature, I wrote the idea
my journal and forgot about
added to a list called "Problems for an
Ambitious Theory of Cryptography,"
About two weeks later had another
breakthrough. In between cleaning and
cooking, suddenly realized the prob-
I only with my private key. generate the
lem could be turned around to solve
the question bothehng
How do you secure communica-
initiate
tion with somebody you've never met?
I'd already seen that by means of an
asymmethc pair of transformations that
are the inverses of
system could either sign or
nature. Then I
realized
cation (the nonsecret part) first, could
encrypt messages by means of one-
way functions in such a way that only
one person could get them back.
Omni: Did you shout. Eureka!
Diffie; walked downstairs to get a
I Key distribution is a major part of
Coke, and almost forgot about the idea.
I remembered I'd been thinking about
something interesting, but couldn't
quite recall what it was. Then
back, and I was acutely aware,
time in
first my work on cryptography
that I'd discovered something really
valuable. After dinner walked down to
I world every day to cryptographic de-
all the Hellman's house. We'd yet to de-
fvlarty
velop the term "digital signature," so
in we talked instead about things like
and when got I "one-way authentication." It took me an
I began thinking hour but finally Marty understood and
got as excited as was. I up tens of pounds of material for key-
Omni: How does public key cryptogra-
I phy work?
Diffie: In classical cryptography, the
cryptographic variable or key controls
how plaintext is transformed into ci-
phertexl. Every key does it differently.
The critical thing in classical systems is
of two sorts of au- their symmetry. Knowing how to en-
crypt messages tells you how to de-
crypt them. My big realization was
understanding how to build a crypto-
graphic system in which each commu-
nication was controlled by not one, but
is called chal- two keys. The two keys are related, so
anything you encrypted with one can
be decrypted with the other But they
I was acutely aware, for the
my work on
that I'd discovered
I
walked downstairs
also have the property that it you're told
only one key, you can't figure the other
one out. We subsequently called these
the public key and the
Omni: What do you gain by splitting the
down in two keys?
it. It got Diffie: Imagine you want to send me a
secure message. You look up my pub-
lic key in your phone book, plug it into
I your machine, and encrypt a message
for me in such a way that it can be read
key pair and disseminate my public
me since 1965: key as widely as possible, but keep the
private key to myself. Whenever a mes-
sage encrypted with my public key
comes in, can read
I Since my pri-
vate key is required to read nobody
each other, a crypto else can This was the invention's first,
verify a sig- more mysterious application It got us
if I did the verifi- over the fundamental problem in all
I previous systems the only way for
you and me to talk cryptographic ally is
ifwe first have an "out of band commu-
nication," as they say in the jargon, in
which we exchange keys.
classical cryptography In the U.S. gov-
ernment, it's handled by the COMSEC,
or materials control system which,
it came along with communications intelli-
for the gence, is one of two major functions of
the National Security Agency COM-
SEC moves tons of keys around the
vices, mostly military using a range of
systems: key lists, paper tape, cards,
disks. When a ship comes into
, . .
port, the cryptocustodians go ashore
with their locked briefcases and pick
ing their machines. Prior to Aldrich
Ames, the two most famous spy scan-
dals in a generation involved the sale
of cryptographic keys to the Rus-
sians who read our traffic.
With conventional symmetric cryp-
tography, you can talk securely only to
people to whom keys have been dis-
tributed. This just won't do for securing
a telephone system. There's no physi-
cal way to do it. Distributing crypto-
graphic keys to the entire population
would be the equivalent of sending
everyone a registered letter when you
installed your phone, jusl in case you
ever wanted to talk to them. The best
first time in
cryptography,
something valuable. I
to get a Coke.
you can do is have "key distribution
centers" that share keys among sub-
scribers and make introductions.
private key. Omni: What's wrong with that?
Diffie; The key distribution center must
set up every call, and worse, it can
read all the traffic. But public key cryp-
tography reduces key storage require-
ments to the point where there is only
one secret for every person in the net-
work, and that secret never has to
I move, The key gets manufactured in
your own cryptographic device, and
stays there. The public key is the mov-
able part. In practice, I get my name
and public key signed by a sort of no-
it. tary public, so you can recognize as it
it, belonging to me. Then my secure
phone calls yours and hands you my
credentials. "Whitfield Diffie is calling
and his public key is such and such."
Some central authority is still involved
in introducing us, but it can no longer
read the traffic.
Omni: How did you design keys that
are both public and private?
Diffie: It's not obvious to you because it
isn't obvious. It wasn't obvious to me,
and I did not discover a solution to the
problem as I originally posed it. Marty
Hellman and discovered another ap-
I
proach Djffie-Hellman that solves
many problems better But three math-
ematicians al MIT, Ronald Rivest, Adi
Shamir, and Leonard Adieman [RSA],
actually solved the original problem.
Omni: How does this approach, the
RSA system, work?
Dittle: Start with the notion of a one-way
function. If you took algebra in high
school, you probably remember how
much easier it is to raise numbers to
powers than it is to take roots. If ask
you for the fifth power of the number 2,
it takes a few seconds of multiplying to
discover that 2^5 =^2x2x2x2x2
= of which is 300 digits long, and muldplies
32. But i! ask you what's the fifth root
I them together to gel a product 600 dig-
of 32, it takes longer to figure out. If
give you a number as big as ten billion,
it'd take you a very long lime to calcu-
late ils liflh root. So raising
powers is a one-way function with re-
spect to the inverse operation of ex-
tracting roots.
Another example is multiplying versus
factoring. If give you two numbers
I cult for anybody but you to factor this
31 and 97, which are both prime you
can easily multiply them: 3007. But if
give you the product, 3007, then find-
ing out that 31 and 97 are its factors is
much harder. The fact that multiplying
prime numbers is easier than factoring
them has been a fundamental problem
in mathematics since the Greeks. working together for years.
RSA, which to date is the most suc- Omni: What did you do as a kid?
cessful public key cryptographic sys- Diffie: The same thing do as an adult,
I
tem, combines these two phenomena. I mostly remember staring off into
Raising numbers to powers is a one- space. From time to lime did well in I
way function in relation to extracting mathematics. read [Robert] Heinlein's
I
roots. Multiplying prime numbers is a The Rolling Stones, about a family who
one-way function relative to factoring. If fixes up an old spaceship and travels
the product Is big enough, and you from the moon The
to the other planets.
alone know its factors, this constitutes family believes mathematics
Is the key
a trapdoor that lets you and only you ic understanding the world.One sum-
decrypt messages. mer, went off to Europe carrying the
I
I Omni: How does work? it Chemical Rubber Company Handbook
Diffie: Your cryptographic equipment of Mathematical Tables, It had no text,
manufactures two large primes, each just tables of formulas and integrals.
The next summer studied G. H.
1
Hardy's Course of Pure Mathematics.
I
Its long. These numbers are big: they This was a better choice, but probably
dwarf any that describe phe-
utterly not as good as taking Courant's calcu-
nomena in the physical world. The lus. Still, by the time entered MIT. I
I
numbers to number of particles in the universe, for probably knew half as much mathe-
example, is estimated to be less than matics as know now.
I
100 digits long. As a kid was passionately inter-
I
The 6Q0-digit number, the product, ested in military things, but being an in-
is made public. It's immeasurably diffi- tellectual snob, thought cryptography
I
was vulgar. Everybody liked spying
number. The largest number of this and cryptography, but few people were
I type that's been factored last year is interested in camouflage, chemical
"RSA Challenge Number 129." A 129- warfare, or the influence of the Cru-
digit number Is a long way from a 600- sades on military architecture in thir-
digit number. First proposed in the teenth century Europe. In junior high I
Seventies, the Challenge was only lived the "hit parade" life, going to dance
solved by hundreds of computers parties where acted like a cross be-
I
tween Efvis and Archie. But changed I

Gi't TV reception you never l)ad before, with the ...

completely in high school, and the dis-
cussion groups of the Ethical Culture
Society became the social and intellec-
Antenna Multiplier
lualfoundation of my Hie.
peacenik, marched
became a
for
I

nuclear disar- still only S2955*

mament, sang folk songs in Washing- But TLiXii Ihf. mUoi ,

ton Square Park. Wild parties became

places where you sat around discussing
w gel T\ rLLLptiiiii
the meaning of life. At IvlIT regarded 1

I k its plasliLhoui
myself as a pure malhematician, par- [ni, the \ t.

ticularly interested in analysis. Curi- nmtoj :s that li

ously, the things did best are not I multiplier; the reception power of vour TV Tt\Q Aiilama
particularly useful in cryptography WiilUjlici'' '
your
stabilizes TV picture eliminates ghosts
-ind statiL ind brings in ftahons that were unhl now on
Omni: Were you into sex. drugs, and
Msibki fliLkersaiid iniio\inf,sh3dinvs In irwsi jrLisioii will be
rock and roll? tL in\ iuldoi>r intiiini Lt mpletLH (limited b\
Diffie: would not wish to speak
I
of ill
pKr
any of those things. irT\ ^
iit,htthroii),h\,
Omni: presume you partook of the
I It on a nt irb\ or tian^ it on tnt u ill An 1
t-ible 11 I id \

inttti.iti\L rabbiiear'- kip rid i->r dish interL-n

1
' 'tipht 1
Sixties revolution.
|iisiti-ihii-iLe\ourT\ rttiptioii itil';o\islK imj cption ^nd brings
man
I

Diffie: Oh yeah,
i

I'm a Sixties all the

m new stiti ins an midtiband ind shortwdVL ri. j iiiimenl allemahvEh
L

way down, V\i irLthLt\i_kisne imports rsuttiiL hilti ii I 1 Lnited'^titesmdean

Omn/.-What did you do after college? thtretore brmg ".ou this initstTiidui^ T\ aitessorv t r 'ill s hjM anL\Lnbetter
To dodge the draft in 1965, took
Diffie: I
deal BiiyhLoforS'>9 90 anduetl send you a third oi
(i

r LOiiiittiineiiti absohlte
a job at the Iviitre Corporation, which ly FREE' Unkish the hjll power I'f \ our tele\ isicn u ilh lull 1
11^ ' LluJer It todav

worked on command and control sys- HIRFASTFSTSERMCE OKDtR

TOLL FREE (800) 797 7167 m Man
tems for the military, worked as a I

2JHou D Da aW ek
computer programmer on Mathlab, an
interactive tool for symbolic mathemat-
ics that eventually became the Mac-
syma system. Software is the greatest
development in manufacturing technol-
ogy in our lifetime, maybe in the millen- 85 Berry St., San Francisco, CA 94107
nium. became senously interested
I in

proving software correctness.

Omni: When does cryptography come pu s SO e e a e CH ma y poss b wa ed me back on proof of correct-
back into the picture? lies for test. ness. But was old enough then not to
I

Diffie: Security was a large part of the But in 1972 got sidetracked when
I worry about the draft so took an indef- I

Mullics time-sharing computer system Larry Roberts, head of information pro- inite leave of absence.

going on at lyllT, and began thinking
more and more about personal privacy.
[Vlultics had elaborate file protection
systems, but all required trusting the
programmers. Whatever password
had on them, system programmers
could always get al my files, and
somebody could always
tem programmers, who wouldn't be
terested in going to jail to protect my
files. We're verging from a free society
intotyranny when the government can
go behind my back and subpoena files
from system programmers, which is
what they do now
I cessing at ARPA the Advanced Re-
search Projects Agency of the
Pentagon approached the NSA for
help with ARPAnet's security. But as the
I boss of a mere $100-million-a-year mili-
tary research project, poor Larry wasn't
entitled to NSA's help. They told him to
get at the sys- go stuff it. So Roberts asked McCarthy
in- to thinkabout network security, Mc-
Carthy did cook up a cryptographic
program. All time-sharing systems
since the Sixties had commands that
said "encrypt file," but nobody used
them because they were so cumber-
in bank investiga- some and slow. thought a serious
On one of many cross-country trips,
I stppped at the IBM lab in Yorktown
Heights [New York] to visit Alan Tritter,
one of the first generation of telephone
hackers. Tritter called himself "the
biggest man In computer science"
he weighed 400 pounds. He intro-
duced me to Alan Konheim, who di-
rected IBM's cryptographic research
group probably the only significant
American research group then in cryp-
tography outside the NSA, Konheim
was very secretive. He only told me
one thing, and probably wishes he'd
I
never said that. "When you get back to

tions. I saw that the only way to control cryptographic program should be able Stanford, look up my friend Marty Hell-
my would be to encrypt them.
files to encrypt a file as fast as you cculd man," he said.
Omni: Did you go to Stanford to study copy it, and McCarthy's program came When returned to California in
I

cryptography? nowhere close to that. 1974, called Hellman. We immedi-

I

Diffie: No, went to work with John Mc-

I Omni: So really the NSA got you work- ately found each other the best-in-
Carthy at the Al lab on the proof of cor- ing on cryptography? formed people we'd ever encountered.
rectness of programs. the only He was Diffie: Yes, was officially working for
I
Marty and worked together for four
I

other person time who un-

I knew at the ARPA, but only because they were years and became a great pain in Kon-
derstood how important the problem using NSA's money and doing them a heim's tush. Our first political fight
was. Proof of correctness aspires to favor. Proof of correctness of programs startedin 1975, when the government

mathematically prove that the pro- has since grown into a big security-re- adopted as the data encryption stan-
grams you write willalways do what lated industry. By spring 1973, I was dard [DES] a system developed by
you want them to do. Many programs working on nothing else but cryptogra- IBM. We thought its key was loo small.
work on an effectively infinite number of phy This did not please McCarthy, who I made my living for several years ar-

guing against DES, and now I'm mak-
ing a living arguing against a new gov-
ernment slandard, the Escrowed
Encryption Standard.
The government is trying to push on
everybody a new cryptographic stan-
dard. It's secret and wili be availabie
only in tarn per- resistant hardware the
Clipper chip. The government wiii con-
trol the products you buy. Worse yet,
these products will contain a trapdoor
allowing the government to read the
traffic when it feeis it needs to.
Omni: Why is the Clipper chip so de-
voutiy to be opposed?
Diffie:If the oniy teiecommunicattons
products available aliow the govern-
ment to spy on your conversations,
then there'ii be no privacy left for any-
body except fat cats who can fly
around to visit one another in person.
This tremendous centralization of the
government's power will create a basic
vulnerability in Amehcan communica-
tions.Power so centralized in an entity
can be captured, whether by foreign
invader or coup d'etat. By creating a
Tremendous
of the government's power creates a vul-
nerability in
Power so centralized can be captured.
system that can be turned against the
American people, we are making the
country vulnerable in a way that could
become very important in the future.
Omn/.- Why's the government pushing it?
Diffie: imagine there's a hidden intelli-
I Banning cryptography is not like gun
gence agenda here. The government
is obviously terrified about the
tion of products over which
control. Widespread deployment
cryptographic systems too difficult for
NSA to routinely break might degrade
their performance and result
budget being cut.
Omni: Didn't Vice President Gore an-
nounce that the government was back-
ingdown on the Clipper chip? It will go
into our telephones, but not into our
computers.
Diffie: don't think he backed down on
1
anything. His statement was merely
misleading. The Clipper chip has always
been intended for telephones, and we
have no idea what he's cooking up for
computers. He merely reiterated the
demand for a key escrow system. This
is a mechanism tiuilt into cryptographic
systems allowing the government to
read the traffic. The keys for bypassing
the encryption will be held in
92 OMNI
a pair of government agencies.
Omni: How will the fight end"^
Diffie: hard to believe the govern-
It's
ment will get what it wants, but that
doesn't mean freedom won't suffer in
the process. They are swimming up-
stream against the flow of technology
People dedicated to protecting their
communications will get better systems
as time goes on, but that doesn't mean
honest citizens will have that freedom.
The administration has insisted will it
not make private use of cryptographic
systems illegal, but FBI director Louis
Freeh recently admitted at a meeting in
Washington that if unescrowed encryp-
tion got in the way of wiretaps, he'd
push for a law against it. Freeh keeps
telling Congress electronic surveillance
is necessary for law enforcement, even
though there were fewer than 1,000
court-ordered wiretaps last year, out of
nearly 250,000 federal cases. NSA's
former chief lawyer likes to cite the
case of a pedophile in Sacramento
who encrypted his computer files.
think the pedophile has already been
centralization
communications.
convicted, but they want to get hold of
his files and put him away for another
ten years. The notion of pedophiles
"seducing" people over the Internet
hardly seems a major threat to society
control. We don't have drive-by shoot-
prolifera- ings on the Internet. This approach to
it has no crime control is a lotof nonsense. They
of say they want to prevent a security-
minded criminal from going down to
Radio Shack and buying off-the-shelf
in their communications equipment that will
defeat law enforcement, This means
government-approved equipment has
tobe the only product available.
Omni: Will be able to go to Radio
I Diffie:
Shack and buy a crypto machine no-
body can crack?
Diffie: I'm inclined to think so. In the
1790s, when the Bill of Rights was rati-
fied, any two people could have a
vate conversation with a certainty no
one in the world enjoys today by walk-
ing a few meters down the road and
Jooking to see no one was hiding in the
bushes. There were no recording de-
vices, parabolic microphones, or laser
interferometers bouncing off their eye-
escrow at glasses. You will note civilization survived.
Many of us regard that period as a
golden age in American political culture,
Omni: How secure is the government's
proposed escrow system?
Diffie: Building trapdoors into security
equipment inherently reduces Its secu-
rity For intelligence reasons, the gov-
ernment is demanding the system only
use 80-bit keys. This tells you the
upper bound on the amount of work
needed to cryptanalyze messages:
2'^aO objects. This is a million million
million million computations. It would
have to be an incredibly interesting
phone call for anybody to do 2^80
computations to read it. On the other
hand, given the way the system is or-
ganized, takes only a few times that
it
much work to read ail the traffic ever
passed through an individual tele-
phone, in 2005 or 2010, when there's
much more computing power or new
cryptanalytic techniques, somebody
who's been recording this traffic might
read it with relative ease And make no
I mistake about it, people are recording
lots of traffic right now.
Omni: Now that can get cryptographic
I
programs on the Internet, hasn't the
public outsmarted the spies?
Diffie: In no way has the battle for the
availability of cryptography been won.
Since the end of World War II. people
have been saying the end of the spy-
masters was nigh. But if you drive
through Cheltenham or Fort Meade,
you notice a lot of money being spent
on fancy new buildings. Communica-
tions intelligence is still eating high on
the hog, because the rate traffic mi-
grates Into potentially vulnerable
telecommunication channels exceeds
the rate traffic can be protected. The
Internet itself doubles in size every 14
months.
Will more of this traffic be encrypted
in the future? Undoubtedly Will cryp-
tosystems become and stay popular
for years, even though they have flaws
or trapdoors somebody knows how to
exploit? Very possibly
Omni: So, then, the only way to break
secretcodes is for a lot of people to at-
tackthem?
Not necessarily a lot of people,
just the right people,
Omni: This seems to argue for making
cryptographic algorithms public.
Diffie: it certainly does. If you publish
pri- your algorithm you're more likely to
hear if somebody breaks it. Thinking
you can keep cryptographic algorithms
secret from your major opponents is
follyIt takes strong opponents to break
a good algorithm, but the strongest
best funded also have the capacity to
acquire the algorithm against any rea-
sonable commercial attempt to keep it
secret.The reason to keep crypto sys- you working on now? Diffie: I see no sign the government re-

tems secret is most people working in Diffie: Certification of cryptographic gards my activities as objectionable or
this business are spies, tine NSA is tfie systems is the core problem. The diffi- that my activities hinder in any way. it

supplier of algorithms for the U.S. com- culty of finding hidden functions in Having people testify before Congress
munications security but something be- computer programs is unboundedly and carry on public debate creates the
tween three-quarters and 90% of their high. How can you certify there aren't illusion of democracy Why should they
budget goes to spying, so they have a trapdoors in systems, particularly if object to that? I give apparent legiti-

vested interest in l^eeping crypto- manufacturers are working with trade- macy to these behind-the-scenes
graphic equipment out of their oppo- secret designs? don't know how ordi-
I
processes, don't seem to have any
I

nents' hands, nary people can be supplied with real effect on what happens.

Omni: Are you a spy? something they trust, because the re- Omni: In his story "The Gold Bug,"
Diffie: don't work for anybody but Sun
i
ward for undermining widely-used sys- Edgar Allan Poe says there is no such
Microsyslems, and don't snoop for I
tems is very high thing as a cipher that can't be broken.
anyone but myseif, Intelligence agencies are not in Do you agree?
Omni: Do you get offers? business to play fair. They don't want to Diffie: That's a tricky question. New-
DiHie: Oniy from NSA, if tfiat counts, break traffic that they can arrange to comers to the problem are inclined to

and never good enough. get some easier way. So they're build- say easy
it's to make
an unbreakable
Omni: The field of cryptograpliy histori- trapdoors
ing visible into things through system. If you start designing a secure
cally has lent itself to amateurs. the key escrow program. There's no communications product today by the
Diffie: We amateurs like to think so, reason to believe they aren't also build- time goes into service in 2000, your
11

Tfiomas Jefferson invented a crypto- ing trapdoors into things that are hid-
graphic system rediscovered among den. For instance, I've been told the
his papers in 1922 and was later adopted diagnostic computers in cars now
by the Navy If he'd used his own sys- record information about your driving
tem when he was Secretary of State in- style that potentially affects your war-
stead of one infinitely easier to solve, ranty. If your mechanic can determine
U.S.traffic might have been secure into the highest speed you achieved in the
the twentieth century Instead, it was last several thousand miles, then your
porous well into the Forties. car is spying on you.
system is good for 20 or 30 years. But
on the last day it's in use, somebody
encrypts a sensitive message so im-
portant it's still interesting to an oppo-
nent 50 years later. This means you're
designing today against an opponent
who sits down to attack you a century
from now. He holds in his pocket calcu-
lator more computing power than we

Omni: In 1980 you predicted all com- Omni: Sun Microsystems's largest cus- now have in the entire world, and he
puters and telephones would be en- tomer is the U.S. government. Has any- knows a bunch of mathematics as yet
crypted by now. one in the company suggested you undreamed of. Do you see why it's a
Diffie: was vastly wrong about the de-
I
tone down your criticism? hard problem?Da
gree to which people would be con-
cerned with the problem. But the vast
majority of the world's communications
is still uncrypted. Interception costs are

dropping, meaning the need to protect

telecommunication channels is rising,

and at some point this situation will

spark a vast range of products. But so
far people still don't see the damage
being done to them by insecure com-
munications, so they keep postponing
the decision to do something about it.
Omni: How can you tell when eaves-
dropping is happening?
Diffie: It's hard for anyone other than an
intelligence organization to know it's
being spied on. You may see "manifes-
tations." Five times in one year you lose
contracts by narrow margins to the
same competitor who seems to know in
advance what your bids are going to
be, But it's expensive and difficult to
figure out if due to a communioa-
this is
tions security failure. Duhng the Cold
War, spies changed sides relatively in-
frequently, but in industry, people
change sides every day. Many people
in Silicon Valley constantly move. So
security problems in industry may be
more difficult than in the military The
military knows people are spending
lots of money attacking its communica-
tions, whereas industry is usually in the
dark about it,

Omni: What types of problems are

FICTION Y MICHAEL SWANWICK
LLUSTRATION Y ERIC DINYER

I was walking the telephone wires upside-down, the sky underfoot cold

and flat with a few hard bright stars sparsely scattered about it, when I
thought how it would take only an instant's weakness to step off to the side

and fall up forever into the night. A kind of wildness entered me then and

I began to run.
I made the wires sing. They leapt and hulked above me as I raced past

Ricky's Luncheonette and up the hill. Past the old chocolate factory and the

IDI Advertising Display plant. Past the body shops, past A. J. LaCourse
Electric Motors-Controls-Parts, Then, In scrambled up and ran
a panic, I
I grabbed at a rusty flange on the
where the slope steepened, along the toward the Ridge and safely. had a I side of the Roxy.
curving snake of rowhouses that went squat in the old Roxy, and once was I Too late! Pain exploded within me, a
the full quarter mile up to the Ridge. through the wall, the Corpsegrinder sheet of white nausea. All in an instant i

Twice overtook pedestrians, hunched

I would not follow. Why this should be lost the name of my second daughter,

and bundled, heads doggedly down, so, did not know, But you learn the rules
1 an April morning when the world was
out on incomprehensible errands. They if you want to survive. new and I was a smoky string of
five,

didn't notice me, of course. They never ran. In the back of my head could
I I ali-nighters in Rensselaer Polytech, the
do. The antenna farm was visible from hear the Seven Sisters clucking and jowly grin of Old Whatsisiace the Ger-
here. could see the Seven Sisters
I
gossiping to each other, radiating tele- man who lived on LaFountain Street,
spangled with red lights, dependent on vision and radio over a few dozen fre- the fresh pain of a sprained ankle out
the earth like stalactites. "Where are quencies. Indifferent to my plight. back of a Banana Republic warehouse,
you running to, little one?" one tower The Corpsegrinder churned up the fishing off a yellow rubber raft with my
whispered in a crackling, siaticky wires on a hundred needle-sharp legs. old man on Lake Champlain, All gone,
voice. I think it was Hegemone. I could feel the ion surge it kicked up these and a thousand things more,
"Fuck off," I said without slackening pushing against me as reached the I sucked away, crushed to nothing, be-
my pace, and they all chuckled. intersection of Ridge and Leverlngton, yond retrieval.
Cars mumbled by. This was ravine Cars were pulling up to the pumps at Furious as any wounded animal, I

country, however built up, and the far the Atlantic station. Teenagers stood in fought back. Foul bits of substance
side of the road, too steep and rocky for front of the A-Plus Mini Ivlarket, flicking splattered under my fist, The Corpse-
development, was given over to trees half-smoked cigarettes into the street, grinder reared up to smash me down,
and garbage. Hamburger wrappings stamping their feet like colts, and wait- and scrabbled desperately away.
I

and white plastic trash bags rustled in ing for something to happen. couldn't I
Something tore and gave.
their wake.. I was running full-out now, help feeling a great longing disdain for Then was through the wall and
I

About a block or so from the Ridge, them. Every last one worried about safe and among the bats and gloom.
1stumbled and almost fell. slapped an I grades and drugs and zits, and all the "Cobbr the Corpsegrinder shouted.
arm across a telephone pole and just while snugly barricaded within hulking It lashed wildly back and forth, scour-
managed to catch myself m time. Aghast fortresses of flesh. ing the brick walls with limbs and teeth,

at my own carelessness, hung there, I was scant yards from home. The
I as restless as a March wind, as unpre-
dizzy and alarmed. The ground overhead Roxy was a big old movie palace, fallen dictable as ball lightning.
was black as black, an iron roof, yet into disrepair and semiconverted to a For the moment was safe. But it I

somehow was as anxious as a hound to skateboarding rink which had gone out had seized a me, tortured
part of and it,

leap upon me, crush me flat, smear me of business almost immediately. But it made it a part of itself. could no longer I

to nottiingness. stared up at horrified.I it, had been a wonderful place once, and delude myself into thinking it was sim-
Somebody screamed my name. the terra-colta trim was still there: rib- ply going to go away. "Cahawahawbb!"
I turned. A faint blue figure clung to a bons and river-gods, great puffing It broke my name down to a chord of
television antenna atop a small, stuccoed faces with panpipes, guitars, flowers. overlapping tones. It had an ugly,

brick duplex. Charlie's Widow. She wyverns. crossed the Ridge on a muddy voice. felt dirtied just listening
pointed an arm that flickered with silver
I

dead telephone wire, spider-web deli- to "Caw

it,

A pause, "^awbbl" "
I

fire down Ripka Street. I slewed about cate but still usable. In a horrified daze stumbled up the I

to see what was coming afterme. Almost there. Roxy's curving patterned-tin roof until 1

!t was the Corpsegrinder. Then the creature was upon me, found a section free of bats. Exhausted
When it saw that I'd spotted it, it put with a howl of electromagnetic rage that and dispirited, slumped down. I

out several more legs, extended a silenced even the Sisters for an instant. "Caw aw aw awb buh buh!"
quilled head, and raised a howl that It slammed into my side, a storm of ra- How had the thing found me? I'd

bounced off the Heaviside layer. My zors and diamond-edged fury, hooks thought I'd left it behind in iVlanhattan,

nonexistent blood chilled. and claws extended. Had my flight across the high-tension
96 OMNI

lines left of some kind? Maybe.
a trail
Tfien again, might have some special
it
connection with me. To follow me here
it must have passed by easier prey.
Which implied it had a grudge against
me. Maybe I'd known the Corpse-
grinder bacl< when was human. We
could once have been important to
each other. We might have been
lovers. It was possible. The world is a
stranger place than used to believe.
The horror ol my existence overlook
me then, an acute awareness of the
squalor in which dwelt, the danger
which surrounded me, and the dark
mystery informing my universe, wept
for all that had lost.
I strange sights and cries. Everything
Eventually, the sun rose up like
God's own Peterbilt and with a tri-
umphant blare of chromed trumpets,
gently sent all of us creatures of the
nigfit to sleep.
When you die, the first thing that
pens is that the world turns upside-
down. You feel an overwhelmmg
disorientation and a strange sensation
that's not quite pain as the last strands
connecting you to your body part, and
then you slip out of physical being and
fall from the planet
As you fall, you attenuate. Your sub-
stance expands and thins, glowing
more and more faintly as you pick up
speed. So far as can be told, it's a
process that doesn't ever stop Fainter,
thinner, colder until you've merged
. . .
into the substance of everyone else
who's ever died, spread perfectly uni-
formly through the universal vacuum
forever moving toward but never arriv-
ing at absolute zero. Look hard, and
the sky is full of the Dead.
Not everyone falls away Some few
are fast-thinking or lucky enough to
maintain a tenuous hold on earthly ex-
istence, was one of the lucky ones.
I I
was working late one night on a pro-
posal when had my heart attack. The
1 what's good for you. There'll be light-
office was empty. The ceiling had a
wire mesh within the plaster and that's
what saved me.
The first response to death is denial.
This can't be happening, thought,
gaped up at the floor where my body
had fallen and would lie undiscovered
until morning. My own corpse, pale
and bloodless, wearing a corporate tie
and sleeveless gray Angora sweater.
Gold Rolex, Sharper Image desk ac-
cessohes, and of course also thought:
diQd for this? By which of course
/
meant my entire life.
So was in a state of personal and
it
ontological crisis thai wandered
across the ceiling to the location of an
old pneumatic message tube, removed
and plastered over some 50 years be-
" "
fore. I fell from the seventeenth to the briefest Instant then cartwheeling glee-
twenty-fifth floor, and learned a lot in
I fully into oblivion. In the instant of
the process. Shaken, startled, and al- restoration following the bolt, the walls
ready beginning to assume the wari- were transparent and all the world
ness that the afterlife requires, went to I made of glass, its secrets available to
a window to get a glimpse of the outer be snooped out. But before compre-
it world. When tried to touch the glass, I hension was possible, the walls
my hand went hght through. jerked I opaqued again and the lightning's
back. Cautiously leaned forward so I
malevolent aftermath faded like a mad-
that my head stuck out into the night. man's smile in the night.
1
What a wonderful experience Times Through Seven
it all the Sisters were
Square is when you're dead! There is laughing and singing, screaming with
ten times the light a living being sees. joy whenever a lightning belt flashed,
1
All metal things vibrate with inner life. and making up nonsense poems from
Electric wires are thin scratches in the howls, whistles, and static. During a
i air. Neon sings. The world is filled with momentary lull, the fiat hum of a carrier
wave filled my head. Phaenna, by the
shifts from beauty to beauty. feel of her.But instead of her voice, I
Something that looked tike a cross heard only the sound of fearful sobs.
between a dragon and a wisp of "Widow?" said. "Is that you?"
I
smoke was feeding in the Square. But "She can't hear ycu," Phaenna
it was lost among so many wonders purred. "You're lucky I'm here to bnng
that I gave it no particular thought. you up to speed. A lightning bolt hit the
hap- transformer outside her house. It was
Night again. awoke with Led Zeppelin
I bound to happen sooner or later Your
playing in the back of my head. Stair-
Nemesis the one you call the
way to IHeaven. Again. It can be a long Corpsegrinder, such a cute nickname.
When it saw that I'd spotted it, it put out
several more legs, extended
a quilled head, and raised a howl. My
nonexistent blood chilled.
wait between Dead Milkmen cuts. by the way has her trapped."
"Wakey-risey. little man," crooned This was making no sense at all, "Why
one of the Sisters, It was funny how would the Corpseghnder be after her?"
sometimes they took a close personal "Why why why why?" Phaenna sang,
interest in our doings, and other times a snatch of some pop ballad or other.
ignored us completely. "This is Eu-
phrosyne with the red-eye weather re- "You didn't get answers when you were
port. The outlook is moody with a alive, what makes you think you'd get
chance of existential despair. You won't any no^" The sobbing went on and
be going outside tonight if you know on. "She can sit it out," said, "The I
Corpsegrinder can't hey, wait. Didn't
ning within the hour." they just wire her house for cable? I'm
"It's too late in the year for lightning," trying to picture Phone lines on one
it.
I said. side, electric on the other, cable. She
"Oh dear. Should inform the I can slip out on his blind side."
I I weather?" The sobs lessened and then rose in
By now was beginning to realize
1 a most un-Widowlike wail of despair
that what had taken on awakening to
I
"Typical," Phaenna said. "You
be the Corpsegrlnder's dark aura was haven't the slightest notion of what
actually the high-pressure front of an you're talking about. The lightning
approaching storm. The first drops of stroke has altered your little pet. Go out
ram pattered on the roof. Wind skirled and see for yourself," My hackles rose.
and the grew stronger. Thunder "You know damned good and well that
I
growled
rain
the distance. "Why don't can't
I
you just
in
go fuck your
I
Phaenna's attention shifted and the
A light laugh that trilled up into the carrier beam died. The Seven Sisters
I
supersonic, and she was gone, are fickle that way. This lime, though, it
was listening to the rain underfoot
I was just as well. No way was going out I
when a lightning bolt screamed into ex- there to face that monstrosity, I
istence, turning me inside-out for the couldn't. And was grateful not to have
I
 "

to admit it, woman would have been a sigh. "You'd didn't know when. The two of us set
For a fong while sal thinking about
I think that I
well, never mind." She of- each other off, laughing louder and
the Corpsegrinder, Even here, pro- fered her hand, and when would not 1 louder, our merriment heterodyning
tected by the strong waiis of the Roxy, take it, said, "This way," until filled every television screen
it for
the mere thought of was paralyzing. it I followed her down iVlain Street,
I a mile around with snow.
tried to imagine what Chariie's Widow through the shallow canyon of the busi- My defenses were down. She
was going through, separated Irom this ness district to a diner at the edge of reached out and took my hand.
monster by oniy a thin curtain of brick town. II was across from Hubcap Memory flooded me, it was her first
and stucco, Feeiing the hard radiation Heaven and an automotive junkyard date with Charlie, He was an electri-
of its maiice and need ... II was be- bordered on two sides. The diner was
it cian. Her next-door neighbor was hav-
yond my powers of visualization. Even- closed. We settled down on the ceiling, ing the place rehabbed. She'd been
tually gave up and thought instead
I "That's where the car ended up after working in the back yard and he struck
about my first meeting with the Widow. I died," she said, gesturing toward the up a conversation. Then he asked her
She was coming down the hill from junkyard. "It was right after got the I out.They went to a disco in the Adam's
Roxborough with her arms out, the in- callabout Charlie. stayed up drinking I Mark over on City Line Avenue.
verted image of a child playing a tight- and after a while occurred to me that it She wasn't eager to get involved
rope wali^er. Placing one foot ahead of maybe they were wrong, they'd made with somebody iust then. She was still

the other with deliberate concentration, some sort of horrible mistake and he
scanning the wire before her so cau- wasn't really dead, you know?
tiously that she was less than a block Like maybe he was In a coma or
away when she saw me. something, some horrible kind of misdi-
She screamed. agnosis, they'd gotten him confused
Then she was running straight at with somebody else, who knows? Terri-
me. My bacl< was to the transformer ble things happen in hospitals. They
station
there was no place to flee. I make mistakes,
shrank away as she stumbled to a halt. "\ decided I had
"It's you!" she cried. "Oh God, Char- things out. There wasn't time to
I was fresh off the high-tension
recovering from a hellish affair with a
married man who'd thought that since
he wasn't available for anything perma-
nent, that made her his property. But
when Charlie suggested they go out to
the car for some coke it was the Sev-
enties
she'd said sure. He was going
to put the moves on her sooner or later.
to go and straighten Might as well get it settled early so
make they'd have more time for dancing.
But after they'd done up the lines,
Charlie had shocked her by taking her
lines, still
hands in his and kissing them. She
worked for a Bucks County pottery in

vibrating with energy and fear. those days and her hands were rough
and red. She was very sensitive about

I could remember almost nothing of my them.

"Beautiful hands," he murmured.
"Such beautiful, beautiful hands,"
post-death existence. "You're making fun of me," she
protested, hurt.
lie, knew you'd come back for me,
I I coffee so went to the medicine cabi-
I
"No! These are hands that do
waited so long but never doubted net and gulped down a bunch of pills things, and they've been shaped by
you, never, we can

" She lunged for-
I

at random, figuring something among the things they've done. The way
ward as if to hug me. Our eyes met. them would keep me awake. Then I stones in a stream are shaped by the
Allthe joy in her died. jumped into the car and started off for water that passes over Ihem. The way
"Oh," she said. "It's not you." Colorado, tools are shaped by their work. A ham-
Iwas fresh off the high-tension lines, "ivly God." mer is beautiful, if it's a good hammer,
still vibrating with energy and fear Ivly "I have no idea how fast I was and your hands are, too."
mind was a blaze of contradictions, I going everything was a blur when I He could have been scamming her.
could remember almost nothing of my crashed. At least I
didn't take anybody But something in his voice, his manner,
post-death existence. Fragments, bits with me, thank the Lord. There was this said no, he really meant She squeezed
it.

of advice from the old dead, a horrify- one horrible moment

ing confrontation with something,
some creature or phenomenon that
tiad driven me to flee Ivlanhattan.
Whether it was this event or the tear-
confusion
. . ,
pain and rage and then found myself
lying on the floor of the car with my
corpse just inches beneath me on the
underside of the roof." She was silent
of and his hands and saw that they were
1 beautiful, too. Suddenly she was glad
she hadn't gone off the pill when she
broke up with Daniel. She started to
cry. Her date looked alarmed and baf-

some voltage of that radiant highway for a moment. 'My first impulse was to fled. But she couldn't stop. All the tears
that had scoured me of expehence, I crawl out the window. Lucky for me I she hadn't cried in the past two years
did not know, "It's me," protested, I didn't." Another pause, "It took me came pouring out of her, unstoppable.
"No, it's not," Her gaze was unflat- most of a night to work my way out of Charlie-boy, she thought, you just
tenngly frank "You're not Charlie and the yard. had to go from wreck to
I got lucky
you never were. You're just the sad wreck. There were these gaps to jump. All this in an instant. I snatched my
remnant of what once was a man, and It was a nightmare," hands away, breaking contact, "Don't
not a very good one at that," She "I'm amazed you had the presence do that!" cried, "Don't you ei/er touch
I

["
turned away. She was leaving me! In of mind to stay tn the car." me again
my confusion, felt such a despair as
I
I "Dying sobers you up fast." With flat disdain, the Widow said, "It

had never known before, laughed.

I couldn't help it. And
1 wasn't pleasant for me either. But I

"Please ..." said. I

without the slightest hesitation, she had to see how much of your life you
She stopped. joined right in with me. It was a fine remember"
A long silence. Then what in a living warm moment, the first I'd had since I was naive of me,
It but I was shocked
 passage of memories
to realize that the The Corpsegrinder was visible from and stuttering transformer. A power line

had gone both ways. But before I the Roxy, but between the burning took me into the attic crawlspace. From
could voice my outrage, she said, transformer and the creature's meta- there scaled the electrical system down
I

"There's not much left of you. You're morphosis, was within a block of the
I
through the second and first floors and
only a fragment of a man, shreds and monster before understood exactly
I so to the basement. had a brief I

tatters, hardly anything. No wonder what it was was seeing.

I glimpse of a man asleep on a couch
you're so friglitened. You've got what It was feeding off the dying trans- before the television. The set was off
Charlie calls a low signal-to-noise ratio. former, sucking in energy so greedily but still held a residual charge. It sat
it

What happened in New Yorl< City al- that it pulsed like a mosquito engorged quiescent, smug, bloated with stolen
most destroyed with blood. Enormous plasma wings energies. If the poor bastard on the
you."
"That doesn't give you the right to
warped to either side, hot blue and couch could have seen what saw, I

"Oh be still. You need to know this. transparent. They curved entirely he'd've never turned on the TV again.
Living is simple, you just keep going. around the Widow's house in an unbro- In the basement hand-over-handed
I

But death is complex. It's so hard to ken and circular wall. At the resonance myself from the washing machine to
hang on and so easy to let go. The points they extruded less detailed ver- the main water inlet. Straddling the
temptation always there. Believe me,
is sions of the Corpsegrinder itself, like pipe, summoned all my courage and
I

I know. There used to be five of us in sentinels, all facing the Widow. plunged my head underground.
Roxborough, and where are the others Surrounding her with a phckly ring It was black as pitch. inched forward I

noW Two came through Manayunk last of electricity and malice. on the pipe in a kind of panic. could I

spring and camped out under the El for I

retreated a block, though the trans- see nothing, hear nothing, smell noth-
a season and they're gone, too. Hold- former fire apparently hid me from the ing, taste nothing. All could feel was I

ing it together is hard work. One day Corpsegrinder, tor it stayed where it was, the iron pipe beneath my hands. Just
the stars start singing to you, and the eyelessly staring inward. Three times I beyond the wall the pipe ended in a T-
next you begin to listen to them. A circled thehouse from a distance, look- joint where it hooked into a branch line

week later they start to make sense. ing for a way in. An unguarded cable, under the drive. I followed it to the street.
You're just reacting to events that's a wrought-iron fence, any unbroken It was awful: like suffocation infinitely
not good enough. If you mean to hold stretch of metal too high or too low for prolonged. Like being wrapped in
on, you've got to know why you're the Corpsegrinder to reach. black cloth. Like being drowned in ink.
doing it." Nothing. Like strangling noiselessly in the void
"So why are you?" Finally, because there was no alter- between the stars To distract myself, I

"I'm waiting for Charlie," she said native, I entered the house across the thought about my old man.
simply street from the Widow's, the one that When my father was young, he navi-
It occurred to me to wonder exactly was best shielded from the spouting gated between cities by radio. Driving
how many years she had been waiting.
Three? Fifteen? Just how long was it
possible to hold on? Even in my con-
fused and emotional state, though, I

knew better than to ask. Deep inside

she must've known as well as did that I

AoMEfllVlES It's I
Charlie wasn't coming. "My name's
Cobb," said. "What's yours?"
I

She hesitated and then, with an odd

I HARD TO BE A 7 /jt H
#j)

sidelong look, said, "I'm Charlie's

widow. That's all that matters." It was all
the name she ever gave, and Charlie's
Widow she was to me from then onward.

I
rolled onto my back on the tin ceiling
and spread out my arms and legs, a
phantom starfish among the bats. A
fragment, she had called me, shreds
and tatters. No wonder you're so fright-
ened! In all the months since I'd been
washed into this backwater of the
power grid, she'd never treated me
with anything but a condescension
bordenng on contempt.
So went out into the storm after all.
I

The ratn was nothing. It passed

right through me. But there were ion-
heavy gusts of wind that threatened to
knock me off the lines, and the trans-
former outside the Widow's house was
burning a fierce actinic blue was a It

gusher of energy a tiare star brought to

earth, dazzling. A bolt of lightning un-
zipped me, turned me inside out, and re-
stored me before I had a chance to react.
dark and usually empty highways, he'd
twisi the dial back and forth, back and
forth, until he'd hit a station. Then he'd
withdraw his hand and wait for the sta-
tion iD. That would give htm his rough
location that he was somewhere out-
side of Albany, say. A sudden signal
coming in strong and then abruptly dis-
solving in groans and eerie whistles
was a fluke of the ionosphere, impossi-
bly distant and easily disregarded. One
thatfaded in and immediately out
meant he had grazed the edge of a
station's range.But then a signal would
grow and strengthen as he penetrated
crescendo, fade, and collapse
its field,
into static and silence. That left him
north of Troy, let's say, and making
good time. He would begin the search
for the next station.
You could drive across the continent
in thisway, passed from hand to hand
by local radio, and tuned in to the ge-
ography of the night.
went over that memory three times,
I
polishing and refining it, before the
branch line abruptly ended. One hand
It was feeding off the dying transformer,
sucking in energy so greedily
that it pulsed
engorged with blood.
groped forward and closed upon nothing,
had reached the main conduit. For
I
a panicked moment had feared that it 1
would be concrete or brick or even one
of the cedar pipes the city laid down in
the nineteenth century, remnants of
which still linger here and there be-
neath the pavement. But by sheer blind
luck, the system had been
during that narrow window of time
when the pipes were cast iron.
crawled along its underside first one
way and then the other, searching for
the branch line for the Widow's. There
was a crap under the street. Sev-
lot of
eral times was blocked by gas lines
I hand and plunged through the wall.
or by the high-pressure pipes for the
fire hydrants and had to awkwardly
clamber around them. At last, found
the line and began the painful journey
out from the street again.
When I emerged in the Widow's
basement, Iwas a nervous wreck.
came to me then thai I could no longer
remember my father's name.
rags and shreds indeed! worked my I You know how much have invested in
way up the electrical system, search-
ing every room and unintentionally spy-
ing on the family who had bought the
house after her death. In the kitchen a
100 OMNI
puffy man stood with his sleeves rolled Get back on your Metroliner and go
up, elbow-deep in the sink, angrily home to New York City and your wife
washing dishes by candlelight. A and your money and your two good
woman who was surely his wife expres- whores. Aloud, reasonably, she said,
sively smoked a cigarette at his stiff "It's over, Danny, can't you see that?"
back, drawing in the smoke with bitter "Look, babe. Let's not argue here,
intensity and exhaling it in puffs of ha- okay? Not in the parking lot, with peo-
tred. On the second floor a preadoles- ple walking by and everybody listen-
cent clutched a tortoise-shell cat so
girl ing. Drive us to your place, we can sit
tightly struggled to escape, and cried
it down and talk it over like civilized hu-
into its fur. In the next room a younger man beings." She clutched the wheel,
boy sat on his bed in earphones, Walk- staring straight ahead. "No. We're
man on his lap, staring sightlessly out going to settle this here and now."
the window at the burning transformer. "Christ." One-handed, Daniel wran-
No Widow on either floor gled a pack of Kents from a jacket
How, I wondered, could she have pocket and knocked out a cigarette.
endured this entropic oven of a blue- Took the end in his lips and drew out. it
collar rowhouse, forever the voyeur at Punched the lighter "So talk."
the banquet, watching the living A wash of hopelessness swept over
squander what she had already spent? her Marhed men were supposed to be
Her trace was everywhere, her pres- easy to get rid of. That was the whole
ence elusive was beginning to think
I point. "Let me go, Danny," she pleaded.
she'd despaired and given herself up Then, lying, "We can still be friends."
to the sky when found her in the attic,
I He made a disgusted noise.
clutching the wire that led to the an- "I've tried, Danny, really have. You
I
tenna. She looked up, amazed by my don't know how hard I've tried. But it's
unexpected appearance. just not working."
"All right, I've listened. Now let's go,"
Reaching over her, Daniel threw the
gearshift into reverse. He stepped on
her foot, mashing it into the accelerator.
The car leaped backward. She
swung
shrieked and in a flurry of panic
the wheel about and slammed on the
like an enormous mosquito brakes with her free foot.
With a jolt and a crunch, the car
stopped. There was the tinkle of broken
plastic. They'd hit a lime-green Hyundai.
"Come on," I said. "I know a way out." "Oh, that's just perfecti" Daniel said.
The lighter popped out. He lit his ciga-
rette and then swung open the door.
"I'll check the damage." Over her
the difficulty of navigating the twisting shoulder, she saw Daniel tug at his
maze of pipes under the street, though trousers knees as he crouched to ex-
that was bad enough, asthe fact that amine the Hyundai. She had a sudden
the Widow wouldn't hazard the pas- impulse to slew the car around and es-
installed sage unless led her by the hand.
I
cape. Step on the gas and never look
"You don't know how difficult this is back. Watch his face, dismayed and
I forme," said, I
dwindling, in the rear-view mirror.
"It's the only way I'd dare." A ner- Eyes flooded with tears, she began
vous, humorless laugh. "I have such a quietly to laugh.
lousy sense of direction." Then Daniel was back. "It's all right,
So, steeling myself, seized her I let's go."
"I heard something break."
It took all my concentration to keep "II was just a tail-light, okay?" He
from sliding off the water pipes, was I gave her a funny look, "What the hell
I so distracted by the violence of her are you laughing about?"
thoughts. We
crawled through a hun- She shook her head unable helplessly,
dred memories, all of her married lover to sort out the tears from the laughter
all alike. Here's one: Then somehow they were on the Ex-
It Daniel snapped on the car radio. pressway, the car humming down the
Sad music something classical indistinct and warping road. She was
A thing of flooded the car. "That's bullshit, babe. driving but Daniel was still in control,
I
you?" He jabbed a blunt finger at her We were completely lost now and had
dress. "I could buy two good whores been for some time. had taken what
I I
for what that thing cost." was certain had to be a branch line
Then why don't you, she thought. and it had led nowhere. We'd been
tracing its twisty passage for blocks. I last chance and it's not my job to talk
stopped and pulled my hand away.
couldn't concentrate. Not witli ttie
I you down from the ledge,"
That stung. "1 wasn't asking you to,"
No Need to
caustics and poisons of the Widow's mumbled.
past churning through me. "Listen," I
I

"So you're still there! Take my hand

Put Off Enjoying
said. "We've got to get something and lead us out."
straightbetween us," Ipulled myself together, "You'll have
Sensual Products
Her voice came out of nowhere, to follow my voice, babe. Your memo-
small and wary. "What?" ries are too intense for me."
How to say it? The horror of those We resumed our slow progress. I

memories lay not in their brutality but in was sick of crawling, sick of the dark,
their particularity. They nestled into sick of this lightless horrid existence,
empty spaces where memories of my disgusted to the pit of my soul with who
own shouid have been. They were as and what was. Was tfiere no end Id
I

famiiiar as old shoes. They fit. this labyrinth of pipes?

"If could remember any of this
I "Wait," I'd brushed by something.
crap." said, "I'd apologize. Hell,
I I Something metal buried in the earth,
can't blame you for how you feel Of "What is it?"
course you're angry Bui it's gone, can't "I think it's "

groped about, trying
I

you see that, it's over. You've got to let to get a sense of the thing's shape "I
go. You can't tiold me accountable for think it's a cast-iron gatepost Here.
things can't even remember, okay? All
I Wait, Let me climb up and take a look."
that shit happened decades ago. I was Relinquishing my grip on the pipe, 1

young, I've changed." The absurdity of seized hold of the object and stuck my
the thing swept over me. I'd have head out of the ground. emerged at I

lilvevpbr-
laughed I'd been able. "I'm dead, for
if the gate of an iron fence framing the ins y<"" i healthy
pity's sake!" minuscule front yard of a house on ?r (he r

A long silence. Then, "So you've fig- Ripka Street. could see again! It felt
I

Xandrirf Gold Collecfion calalogue and

ured it out." so good to feel the clear breath of the diicovtr s, wide array of sesual products for
"You've known all along," said bit- I
world once more that closed my eyes I

yiiiny .ind reteiving even greater pleasure.

terly "Ever since came off the high- I briefly to savor the sensation,
tension lines in Manayunk." "How Euphrosyne said,
ironic."
Trust aur experience. Men and women have
delighted in the Xandiia CoUection for over
She didn't deny it. "I suppose I "After being so heroic," Thalia said.
twenty years. We sdect only the finest prod-
should be flattered that when you were "Overcoming his fears." Aglaia said.
ucts from aromid the world.
in trouble you came to me," she said in "Rescuing the fair maid from terror
a way that indicated she was not. and durance vile," Cleta said, Rely on our 100%, three-way Guarantee,

"Why didn't you tell me then? Why "Realizing at last who he is," rf you've been reluctani to purcliase sejcual

Phaenna
drag it out?"
"Danny
said.
"Beginning that long and difficult
products through the mail, consider

1. We guarantee your privacy. Everything

this:

we
"Don't call me that!" road to recovery by finally getting in ship is plainly and securely wrapped with
"It's your name. Daniel, Daniel Cobb," touch with his innermost feelings," no due to its contents. All transactions are
All the emotions I'd been holding Auxo said. Hegemone giggled, strictly confidential, and we nfrer sell, rert,
back by sheer force of denial closed "What?" opened my eyes.
I

about me. flung myself down and I That was when the Corpsegrinder
2. We guarantee your satisfaction. If a product
clutched the pipe tight, crushing my- struck, II leaped upon me with stunning
is unsatisfactory, simply return it for replace-
self against its unforgiving surface. force, driving spear-long talons through
ment or refund within 60 days,
Trapped in the friendless wastes of my head and body The talons were
night, I weighed my fear of letting go barbed so that Ihey couldn't be pulled 3. We guarantee tiiat tiie product you choose

against my fear of holding on, free and they burned like molten metal, will keep giving you pleasure. Should it mal-
"Cobb?" "Ahhhh, Cobb," the Corpsegrinder hmction, just return it to us for a ivpiacemenl.

I
The Widow's voice took
said nothing. crooned, "Now this is sweet" Order today and see. Send for your catalogui
on an edgy quality. "Cobb, we can't Iscreamed and it drank in those today We'll apply ils S4,00 price to you iirsl
stay here. You've got to lead me out, i screams so that only silence escaped order. You have nothing to lose and an
don't have the slightest idea which way into the outside world. struggled and I

entirely new worid of enjoyment to g.li

to go, I'm lost withoutyour help," it made those struggles its own, leav-

still could not speak,

I
ing me to kick myself deeper and
"Cobb!" She was close to panic. "I deeper into the drowning pools of its
put my own feelings aside. Back in identity With all my will I resisted. It

ivianayunk. You needed help and did I was not enough, experienced the lan-
!

what could. Now it's your turn,"

I guorous pleasure of surrender as that
Silently invisibly, shook my head, I very will and resistance were sucked

"God damn you. Danny" she said down into my attacker's substance.
"I won't let you do this to me
furiously The distinction between me and it
again!So you're unhappy with what a weakened, strained, dissolved. was I

jerk you were that's not my problem. transformed,

You can't redeem your manliness on was the Corpsegrinder now.
I

me any more. am not your fucking sal- I Manhattan is a virtual school for the
vation, am not some kind of cosmic
I dead. Enough people die there every
day to keep any number ot monsters Fiesta outside of 301h Street Station, wanted the Widow, wanted her so bad
fed. From the store of memories the The engine was going and the heater there were no words for il. wanted to I

CorpsegrJnder had stolen from me, I and the windshield wiper, too, so I clutch her to me so tightly her nbs
recalled a quiet moment sitting cross- snapped on the radio to mask their would splinter and for just this once
legged on the tin ceiling of a sleaze joint noise, Beethoven filled the car, the she'd know it was real. wanted to own I

while table dancers entertained Japan-
ese tourists on the
kobold instructed me on the finer points
of survival."The worst thing you can be
hunted by," he said, "is yourself."
Moonlight Sonata. her.To possess her To put an end to all
floor above and a "That's bullshit, babe," I said. "You her little games. To know her every
know how much have invested in I thought and secret, down to Ihe very
you? could buy two good whores for
I bottom of her being,
what that dress cost." She refused to Mo more lies, babe, thought, no I

"Very aphoristic." meet my eyes. In a whine that set my more evasions You're mine now.
"Fuck you, used to be human, too,"
I leelh on edge, she said, "Danny, can't So perfectly in sync was with the I

"Sorry," you see that It's over between us?" Corpsegrinder's desires that it shifted
"Apology accepted Look, told you I "Look babe, let's not argue in the its primary consciousness back into
about Salamanders. That's a shitty way parking lot, okay?" was trying hard to I
the liquid sphere of memory where it

to go, but at least it's final. When they're be reasonable. "Not with people walk- hung smug and lazy, watching, a
done with you, nothing remains. But a ing by and listening. We'llgo some- voyeur with a willing agent. I was in

Corpsegrinder is a parasite. It has no place private where we can talk this control of the autonomous functions
true identity of its own, so constructs
it over calmly, like two civilized human now. reshaped the tentacles, merging
I

one from bits and pieces

everything of beings." She shifted slightly in tfie seat and recombining them into two strong
that's unpleasant within you. Your basic and adjusted her skirt with a little tug. arms. The claws and talons thai
greeds and lusts. II gives you a partic- Drawing attention to her long legs and clutched the fence made legs again. I

ularly nasty sort of immortality. Remem- Making

fine ass. it hard for me to think The exterior of the Corpsegrinder I

ber that old cartoon? This hideous toad The bitch really knew how to
straight. morphed into human semblance, save
saying, 'Kiss me and live forever Even now, crying and
twist the knife. for that greatmass of memories sprout-
'"
you'll be a toad, but you'll live forever begging, she was aware of how it ing from our back like a bloated spider-
He grimaced. "If you get the choice, go turned me on. And even though hated I sack. Last of all made the head i

gave my own face.

I il

The horror of my existence I

"Surphsed to see me again, babe?"
leered. Her expression was not so
much fearful as disappointed. "Mo,"
overtook me then, an acute awareness of she said wearily, "Deep down, guess
always knew you'd be back."
I I

As drew the Widow closer distantly

the squalor in which
1

dwelt,
I

I knew that all that held me to Ihe Corpse-

grinder was our common
in that instant

the dark mystery informing my universe. store of memohes and my determina-

tion not to lose them again. That was
with the Salamander," being aroused by her little act, was. I enough, though. pushed my face into I

"So what's this business about hunt- The sex was always best after an argu- hers, forcing open her mouth Energies
ing myself?" ment; it made her sluttish. flowed between us like a feast of tongues.

"Sometimes a Corpsegrinder will I clenched my anger in one hand prepared to drink her in,
I

rip you in two and let half escape. For and fisted my pocket with Thinking it. There were no barriers between us.
awhile." how much I'd like to up and give her a This was an experience as intense as
"Why?" shot. She was begging for Secretly, it. when, making love, you lose all track of
"I dunno. Maybe likes to play with it maybe, was what she wanted; I'd
it which body is your own and thought
its food. Ever watch a cat torture a often suspected she'd enjoy being hit. dissolves into the animal moment. For
"
mouse'' Maybe it thinks it's fun It was too late to act on the impulse, a giddy instant was no less her than I
I

From a million miles away, thought: I though. The memory was playing out was myself, was the Widow staring I

So now know what's happened to me.

I like a tape, immutable, unstoppable. fascinated into ttie filthy depths of my
I'd made quite a run of it, but now it All the while, like a hallucination or psyche. She was myself witnessing her
was over. It didn't matter All that mat- the screen of a television set receiving astonishment as she realized exactly
tered was the hoard of memories, glori- conflicting signals, could see the I how little had ever known her. WeI

ous memories, into which I'd been Widow, frozen with fear half in and half both saw her freeze still to the core with
dumped. wallowed in them, picking
I out of the ground. She quivered like an horror. Horror not of what was doing. I

out here a winter sunset and there the acetylene flame. In the memory she But of what was. I

pain of a jellyfish sting when was nine. I was saying something, but with the can't take any credit for what hap-
I

So what was already beginning to

if I shift in my emotions came a corre- pened then. It was only an impulse, a
dissolve? was intoxicated, drunk,
I
sponding warping-away of perception. spasm of the emotions, a sudden and
stoned with the raw stuff of experience. The train station, car, the windshield unexpected clarity of vision Can a sin-
Iwas high on life. wipers and music, all faded to a mur- gle flash of decency redeem a lite like

Then the Widow climbed up the mur in my consciousness. mine? I don't believe it. I refuse to be-
gatepost looking for me. "Cobb?" Tentacles whipped around the lieve it. Had there been time for second
The Corpsegrinder had moved up Widow, She was caught. She struggled thoughts, things might well have gone
the fence to a more comfortable spot in helplessly, deliciously. The Corpseg- differently. But there was no time to
which to digest me. When saw the it rinder's emotions pulsed through me think. There was only time enough to
Widow, it reflexively parked me in a and to my remote horror found that I feel an upwelling of revulsion, a vis-
memory of a gray drizzly day In a Ford they were identical with my own, I ceral desire to be anybody or anything
102 OMNI
but my own loathsome self, a profound
No need to pay $150 or more for a world-class pen:
'

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An aching need
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I let go. * But read this ad for an even better deal! i ft ^

Bobbing gently, the swollen corpus

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ly writing insturments.
is another in the line of Fujit/ama
It is equal or superior to the great
li

ing with it the parasitic Corpsegrinder.

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Everything had spent all my life accu-

I

ance quite indistinguishable in heft and feel. The2-tone
the Voyager Fountain Pen is heavily 14-kt. gold-plated and
mulating fled from me. It went up like a
gone. tipped by a silky-smooth iridium point. Just as those fine
balloon, spinning, dwindling . . .

European and American pens, Vo\/ager pens are tastefully

Leaving me only what few flat memo- decorated with ^old-plafed applications and pocket cp-
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I screamed. Fountain Pen is the price. We ate the exclusive
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And then I cried.

I don't know how long
fence, mourning my loss. But when
gathered myself together, the Widow
was still there,
"Danny," the
touch me, "Danny,
I'd almost rather that she had aban-
doned me. How do you apologize for
sins you can no longer remember? For
having been someone who, however
abhorrent, is gone forever? How can
you expect forgiveness from some-
body you have forgotten so completely
you don't even know her name? felt
United States and can therefore bring you
I
clung to the superior fountain pen for just $49,95. Comp:
I
that lo the $150 to $250 that you would e\pe(
fo pay for equivalent U,S, or European luxur
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Widow said. She didn't
you a third one, with our compliments
I'm sorry," absolutely FREE! U you now write
with baOpoinl pens you can't know what a pli
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''"
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I

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twisted with shame and misery. "Look," ance charge (plus sales ta^ for California
I
said, "I know I've behaved badly. delivery). You have 3t)-day return and one-year
More than badly. But there ought to be warrant^'. We do not refund shipping charges, 1 jerry SIteet, San Francisco, CA 941 07
some way to make it up lo you. For, you
know, everything, Somehow, mean" I

What do you say to somebody "Elizabeth," she said, "My name is scrap of paper, and at the very last she

who's seen to the bottom of your Elizabeth Connelly," was a rapidly tumbling speck. stood I

wretched and inadequate soul? fora long time watching her falling,
"I want to apologize," said. I
We huddledtogether on the ceiling of dwindling, until she was lost in the
With something very close to com- the Roxy through the dawn and the background flicker of the universe, just
passion, the Widow said, too late "It's blank horror that is day. When sunset one more spark in infinity.
for that, Danny It's over. Everything's brought us conscious again, we talked She was gone and couldn't help 1

over. You and only ever had the one
trait in common. We neither of us could
ever let go of anything. Small wonder
we're back together again. But don't
you see, it doesn't matter what you
1 through half the night before making wondering if she had ever really been
the one decision we knew all along that there at all. Had the Widow truly been
we'd have to make. Elizabeth Connelly? Or was she just
It took us almost an hour to reach another fragment of my shattered self,
the Seven Sisters and climb down lo a bundle of related memohes that had I

want or don't want you're not going to the highest point of Thalia. to come to terms with before could
bring myself to let go? A vast empti-
I

get it. Not now. You had your chance. We stood holding hands at the top
It's too late lo make Then things right," of the mast. Radio waves were gushing ness seemed to spread itself through
she stopped, aghast what she had at out from under us like a great wind. It all of existence. clutched the mast I

just said. But we both knew she had was all we could do to keep from being spasmodically then, and thought: I can't!
spoken the truth, blown away But the moment passed, I've got a
"Widow," said as gently as
I I could, Underfoot, Thalia was happily chat- lot of questions, and there aren't any

"I'm sure Charlie^" ting with her sisters. Typically, at our answers here. In just another instant, I'll

"Shut up." moment o! greatest resolve, they gave letgo and follow Elizabeth (if Elizabeth
Ishut up. not the slightest indication of interest. she was) into the night, will fall forever I

The Widow closed her eyes and But they were all listening to us. Don't and will be converted to background
I

swayed, as if in a wind, A ripple ran ask me how knew, I

radiation, smeared ever thinner and
through her and when was gone her
it "Cobb?" Elizabeth said. "I'm afraid." cooler across the universe, a Smooth,
features were simpler, more schematic, "Yeah, me too." A long silence. Then uniform, and universal message that
less recognizably human. She was al- she said, "Let me go first. you go If has only one decode. Let Thalia carry
ready beginning to surrender the first, won't have the nerve,"
I
my story to whoever cares to listen. I

anthropomorphic, "Okay" won't be here for iL

I tried again, "Widow , ,
." Reaching She took a deep breath funny if It's time to go now. Time and then

out my guilty hand to her. you think about it and then she let go, some to leave, I'm frightened, and I'm

She stiffened but did not draw away and fell Into the sky
Our fingers touched, twined, mated. First she was like a kite, and then a
 Wedge slices the dark with

n a depthless aper-
-ling with foggy, am- with light- But how would he
form It? His early \

of liquefied light In Halifax,

tendants pushed willing

tered the spatial dynamic

of the room, but appeared

hovering objects.
In 1968 he joined Robert

MAWmMfm?

na
as the Chrysler Building, the ,
(Wworescent
. .
light),
_ .
above; A'
500,000-year-old formation
will utilize "geologic knowl- .
. . . -

BBaBscsii
the sky, including rare plan- below; Kono (orgoit and helium light).
to his C
.._. Knocking _.

the
'" *'^^, old
'^ Mend
-f the Roden Crater,' bottom right.
^ ZT.
Hotel, erectmg "^tr""''
partitions,
and controlling the amount
"of light
ITiirifliiiHniiilii
filled bathing pool, will fi

transmitting
tant galaxies

Roden Crater is the logi-

ceptions ot light

weather fronts. As he
Guggenheim grant enabled pie was found procreating in

hJm !o fly an old Helio- a glowing Turrell. For some,

ligfit-and-space art proved
-- iting: both the mu-
._ .. _ __, ___.rch of Ihe
appropriate land formalion i sued by
for fiis largest work- The
Roden, tfie ideally shaped
crater, was not (or sale at
\
firsl. But by 1977,
help of tfie Dia Foundation
ed ii irgee
port as he returned from de-
signing
Gertrudt
rope. Lindner and Turr
'--'-"
es include glid-

falling, ct

two-tracks in her rented

Bronco that was not insured

nces of light-
and-space art. But when the
huge
pulsed 01

While tie has reshaped

rim. enhanced his
Id raised S6,6 i
Omni: What's the difference
between a Tun-ell and a tra-
-.. .-- -_ ithan ditional work of art?

100 solo exhibilions, and in

lowship. Critics praise t

work in otherworldly su- perception, li

-""- "^"^ of Ih Haystack fea\

in front of the haystack so thai you Turrell: A sensing space catches, or Turrell: He didi He shouldn't have done
wouldn't miss what there was to see, senses, light
just like the eye or cam- thatl How do know I he got it set back
then I'd remove the object of percep- era, which we made to appro>;imate exactly hght?
tion, the haystack, There'd be no con- our vision. In these spaces the light dif- Omni: It seems, then, that you use ordi-
fusions about what you'd be looking at: fers from ordinary light. In dreams nary lighting in sophisticated ways.
You'd be looking at your seeing. This is we've seen light like this. We dream in Turrell: We have the instruments
don't
direct expenence, as opposed to inter- color. In a lucid dream the colors are as of light I'd like. have in my collection
I

preted experience. rich as, if not richer than, when your an Edison light bulb over 100 years
Omni: So light is perceived as a thing eyes are open, and the resolution of old: you can put electricity to and it it

in your art discovered by the viewer? clarity as good as a beautiful, high-alti- will light. The light bulbs of today won't

Ttirrell: We generally see light as the
bearer of the revelation, something we
use to illuminate spaces and surfaces,
as opposed to according it any thing-
ness itself. Thinly about the lenticular
tude, sunlit morning. People may be last 100 years, and they're still a fila-
surprised to see this kind of light in a ment in an evacuated glass envelope.
conscious, awake state. We've had great progress in changing
Omni: How do you create this color? the architecture of fixtures and design
Turrell: Normally we make a space and aspects of what holds the light, but I

cloud, a smooth, saucer-shaped cloud turn on the light above. This light emp- can't get a light can dial from infrared
I

formed downstream from an obstruc- ties the space of any atmosphere and up through ultraviolet. fv!y work is going
tion like a mountain range and stand- makes It quite blankthe light doesn't to be seen as primitive art not too long
ing still In a high wind, Here comes this pervade it like something physical. We from now. But create this instrument of
I

moisture particle, pushed up just light architectural spaces with daylight. seeing out of what's available.
enough that the rise precipitates the In daylight the iris is completely closed. Omni: Gazing into the aperture in Trace
water out of the solution and it be- A hch darkness in color only happens Elements, felt asI were in a blizzard
If I

comes visible. What we see, however, at a low-level light when the iris is open. white-out and could hear the wind.
is light passing through it at 186,000 So you can take your nice little color Turrell: In sensory synesthesia, one
miles per second. You're seeing some- wheel and sail It like a Frisbee, be- sense influences sensing in another,
thing that's not there, but we call it a cause it's meaningless in additive light. Sensing is really discontinuous. In a Di-
"cloud." We've given c/dl/o' thingness. I take seeing down to the light level vided Space piece you feel the air In
the aperture is thickened, and you're

I have pieces you enter only with vision, almost breathing this colored fog that
occupies and inhabits space. Color oc-
cupies space in a similar way to sound.
others that are all around Singing in the shower, you can find one
or two notes that make your voice res-
onate in that cavity and sound incredi-
you, and some works that you pull over ble. Light will do the same thing.
In the kind of space I'm making, I

your head like a T-shirt. use a combination of complex frequen-

IVIuch of my work investigates this idea
of thingness. I've removed a
thingness of objects, but substituted
the thing of perception and light. I've
given it materiality, whereas we don't
normally accord materiality to light,
Omni: Isn't light a powerful physiologi-
cal substance?
Turrell: Absolutely We drink light as vit-
amin D, They've put in milk for chil-
it
dren, Of course, they've forgotten to
put in whiskey to help adults stay away
It
from depression. Light strongly affects
the endocrine system, and now it's
used to treat certain forms of cancer.
Omni: Ultraviolet light causes cancer, too.
Turrell: Light is radiation, I've had
cies, a bit like a painter does. Only one
where the iris opens. The eyes feel, like color will occupy that volume appropri-
lot of the touch, when you look into the eyes
like ately so you search until you find that
of a lover and experience that intensity color. When you do, it literally fogs
of touch with the eyes. The intimacy of
up it looks like light hangs in space. If
being invaded with that kind of look you try to see the wall you have to look
can be frightening, through this thing, light. It occupies the
Omni: How do you construct this sen- space; it is not an illusion,
suous atmosphere'' Omni: You don't like the word "illusion?"
Turrell: use regular light bulbs, but
I I Turrell; I strenuously object to the idea
need to work with them tape them, work is an illusion. The phrase
that this
sometimes they get wrapped. need I trompe I'oeil is used for an image you
little light out of them, so use shut- I believe to be there that is really not
ters
like strips of black tape on a there, I'm conjuring up a situation to
plastic tube that you dial to determine make you understand what really is,
how much light you let out. control the I These works allude to what they really
amount of light that way or with dim- are a space occupied by a different
mers or a combination of both The big kind of light.

melanoma, so know. And psychologi-

1 thingIs to reduce the light to wtiere the Omni: Viewers have sometimes be-
cally, stahng into the campfire, we have eyes open and the feeling is there. In come disoriented in your pieces. In

the same relationship to light as a deer the Denver Art fvluseum piece [Trace City of Anhirit. a work in Amsterdam
hesitating in the headlights of a car Elements], the wattage is less than one and New York, people fell and had to
This glazed-eye vision is a kind of ab- candlepower. If you stnke a match, the crawl out on their hands and knees.
stract thinking without the symbolism of piece is gone. But it seems light-filled. There were four rooms in a row.
Turrell:
words, a theta state. That power of light Omni: Michael Olijnyk, curator of the As you left the first, pale green room,
is what seek to use.
I don't use light
I Mattress Factory, turned up the fluores- you retained a pink afterimage. The
as a carrier of content, as a movie does, cent tubes on the aperture in Danae, next room was red, and you came to it
Omni: You call the aperture filled with and instantly the piece, which from a with this pink. People felt someone was
foggy light in your Divided Space distance seemed a flat glowing laven- turning the lights up and down. You
pieces a "sensing space," What do you der plane, turned into a hole In the wall walked through the rooms to a door.
mean by that? with lights recessed around it. The door had no color and looked flat.
108 OMf-il


So people felt the doors were closed; whose works are 20 to 30 feet long. That was true, yeah; even have a hard I

they looked solid, but we know they're When projected, they're both the same lime rationalizing it today was trying I

not. And then to try to lean against one size, although different in actual scale to be reasonable, but it wasn't a rea-
of them? was startled that people
, , . I
More important, the slide is projected sonable thing to do. At the time was I

would actually believe it so much they with light so this luminous quality having difficulty wanting what did to I

couldn't see it any other way comes off the screen. So seeing the be recognized as art as much as paint-
Omni: You sound a bit testy . ,
. original works was a disappointment. ing or sculpture, don't want to be lim- I

Turrell: Well, in 1982 and 1983, was I Omni: You've been a pilot for 30 years ited to something you can get into an
sued for $1.5 million by a person ever see light you couldn't explain? elevator, I've been able to fly planes
whose husband was a Supreme Court Turrell: iviany pilots have had interest- because restore them and sell them,
I

in Oregon. They had big law

justice ing experiences, but they know better so they pass through me, just as the art
stuff lined up against me, and it cost than to talk about them too much. Peo- does. As long as it keeps passing
me a lot of money to get out of Three it. ple in airline transport have to be "sta- through when you start to need to
. . ,

people fell at the Wfiitney [Museum in ble." Remember the Japan Airlines hold onto it, it becomes troublesome.
New York]; They
wasn't ac- al! sued. I pilot who had a sighting while flying a Whose art is this? Who owns it?

quitted until the case went to federal cargo plane out of Anchorage? Some- Omni: Who owns Roden Crater?
court. The justice's wife broke her wrist. how it was made
public and now he's Turrell: The Skystone Foundation. And
He sued me for lack of conjugal privi- a Tokyo, don't disbelieve
taxi driver in I it, in fact,owns me. Owning a piece of
leges, said, "Hey, she just broke her
I
in UFOs. When see a light don't
I
I the surface of the earth is an interest-

wrist. I! must have been a hell of a question whether it's of this world or ing delusion we've created in a capital-

hand job." got $500 in contempt of

I
othenworldly. My first thought at looking ist society. We all think this place is
court for that comment. al any light is. Okay, how do I work mine. Isn't it ludicrous? Basically ob-
Because photos could make the with that? I'm also interested in the jects are imbued with power of con-
work look transparent or so you styles of observed UFO craft; they've sciousness continually being injected
couldn't see through it, they wanted me changed to follow our own design sen- into them. When consciousness leaves,
to build the piece again. 1 said, "Give sibility. 1 used to collect UFO models; these things begin their journey to dust.
me the fee, and be happy to do I'll it There's the Adamsky disc with the That's what happens with the house, the
anywhere you want." This is benign
work. Sculpture like Mark Di
Suivero's swinging steel, big pieces
I'm interested in the styles of observed
of wood, a great deal of mass you
can get hit by that thing, hit your head, UFOs. In the 1920s, they had
or get squeezed underneath One it.

guy lost a leg and another was killed.

In my art someone looks at this and
rivets. With the idea of Modernism, they
there's nothing there so it's the effect
of the art. Yes, was a little testy. I
became sleek, like Ferraris.
Omni: Yesterday when we saw Roden
Crater surrounded by a haze of dust-in- cupola on top and the Buck Rogers relationship, when thought leaves it.

fused pink light; you said that vision style. In the Twenties, UFO craft were Omni: Well, recently you've done col-
could offer an idea for a piece. What often described as having rivets; with lectible prints and drawings that raise
thinking processes occur between the the idea of modernism, they became money for building the crater,

vision and the completed work? sleek, like Ferraris. Turrell: Now I make aquatints, wax
Turrell: Looking at the Jacob's Ladder, Omni: What did the Apollo moon mis- emulsion drawings, and double-image
the veils it formed, the Varga, or rain sions mean to you? photographs you view through stereop-
that evaporates before it hits the Turrell: They expanded the sense of tic glasses, made a hologram of the I

ground, I'd ask myself. How, where, do territory we inhabit with consciousness. crater from the air, Bruce Nauman
you see this? Is it sometiting you see To see this blue planet rising over the works with holograms, too, but they're
way out there, or in here? Something surface of the moon was pivotal. of hisface or testicles, and lack the im-
you can go through, or enter? Can it be Martha Graham or Merce Cunningham pression of science.
worked in the near space, or between should have choreographed the land- Omni: What led you to create Roden
you and me, so that I can't see I! even ings, Instead, we sent up astronauts to Crater as art?
though we're m the same physical drive a golf ball and put a flag up, Turrell:always wanted to do a monu-
I

space? play with the idea of the pic-

I
which was all stiff, like a penile implant. mental earthwork. It's about taking this
ture plane; I have pieces you enter only We rationalize we went to the moon for cultural artifact we call "art" into the
with vision, others you enter that are ail the technological spin-offs we got natural surrounding. Wehave a tradi-
around you, and some you pull over Tang and Teflon, Sorry, we didn't. We tion of bringing painting and photogra-
your head like a T-shirt so the inside took this amazing journey. It should phy of nature involved with light into the
seeing behind the eyes is affected. have been celebrated by humans, not museum like the Hudson River
Omni: Is true you became interested
it just a nation. School and Ansel Adams. If you take
in light as a primary material when you Omni: Early in your career you resisted art intonature it can easily be overpow-
discovered you preferred projected the notion art could be bought and ered. Forme to take art into natural sur-
slides of paintings in art history classes sold. Didn't you once take back a roundings was not so much to take
to the paintings themselves? piece you'd sold to a collector and, in nature on. Instead of competing with
Turrell: wanted to work with light be-
I Its place, leave the collector a restored the sunset, wanted to use it, as light,
I

fore that, but it's true, A painting like the vintage Cadillac? and create a situation where percep-
Mona Lisa is photographed to fill the Turrell; These are interesting sto- tionswere heightened more than they
frame, and so is a Barnett Newman, ries . . , they oould be true as well. would be without art there.

and had the shaping on top needed. I space will have something for morning
Flying for seven months, back and
forth, just looking ailandscape and
thinking, was one of the most special
times of my life. considered a volcano
I reference point will move, and you'll
at the bottom of Craters of the Moon
[National Monument] in Idaho, and one
in a pretty little volcanic field near
Baker, California, Roden was my favorite.
Omni: How did you reshape the crater?
Turrell: moved 400,000 cubic yards of
I light is newer, like pounng Beaujolais
cinder from high to low spots on the rim
to give it a uniform height. It's not all
done, but the crater now actually shapes
the sky. It's such a relief. We were
about 200,000 yards into it and celes-
tial vaulting hadn't happened. Now,
you'll come to the top of the crater wall
through a tunnel into an oval, roofless
chamber, and the sky that seemed so
flat, even opaque, suddenly will be-
come domelike. At night, the stars will
seem to form the huge vault of space.
You'll get this sense of closure although
nothing physical is there.
I got caught up in,
by light. It
Warhol stepping into a supermarket and
being astounded by it.
Omni: How will the chamber work"?
Turrell:Take a small amount of light into
an underground chamber that oc-
cludes light you don't want, and light
you do want will be very strong. Take a
sunnse: In a landscape can be strong, it
but if you take the light from it into a
place that's occluding all other ambient
light,you make even more intense.
it
make precise bunkerlike slits so
I'll
that light from the horizon up streams
into them. This gives ambient light from
an area a spatial quality; it will have
one aspect at night and another at day.
It will change with the season. The am-
bient light creates a background
"noise," or setting. When there's an
event in light, will come through and
it
destroy this sense of atmosphere with
its image. These events last sometimes
less than 14 minutes.
Omni: What celestial events will the
chamber intensify?
Turrell: The spaces look at different
portions of sky Small changes in light-
source location will make huge
changes in what you'll see. Four cardi-
nal spaces take in general light; east
and west spaces are specifically for
rich floral, sunset colorations. The north
110 OMM
space alters the sensations of the earth
moving by removing the horizon. Each
and night. The only stable point to look
at is the stars, so you'll select them as
your reference. After a time, that stable
physically feel as if you're leaning. It's
not an illusion. Some portions of sky
have more old light light coming from
farther away With the Milky Way you're
seeing light from our galaxy. The sun's
into space. To have light
older than the Milky Way means
ing those areas of sky to align with a
space. Then you have relatively old
light present to touch.
Omni: How else will visitors
the "music of the spheres?"
Turrell:You will have to swim into sev-
eral spaces. In one space in the Upper
Fumarole, the crater's secondary vent,
you can sit in a nice, warm bath that
also acts like an apochromatic lens to
focus the three ma|or colors in the same
place. The pool will be a sensing place
dazzled, or fascinated
was like Andy
and will hold the light. The entire cham-
ber will be surrounded by a Faraday
cage an opening that allows electro-
magnetic signals to come through a
mesh of wire in the concrete making
the space act like a radioteiescope. On
the bottom sits a mirror like a satellite
dish, so when you lie down at an angle
with your ears under water, you'll hear
the radio sources of the stars, sun,
Jupiter, the quasars, or whatever area
of sky you're looking at,
Omni: Is "the sacred" a part of it?
Turrell: look at contexts and am forced
I center of the spaces about 2,000 years
to deal with them, might create a situ-
I from now in 4,000 years they'll be
ation that is like a lourney to a place
where you'd encounter a night-bloom-
ing cereus. Maybe you'd take a horse
or four-wheel drive. After finding the
cactus on this one full-moon night
when it blooms, you'd watch its flower
open and orient to the moon. You'd rush,
because the insects have one night to
pollinate the plant. As the moon sunk
below the canyon walls, the flower would
close and in the morning it would drop.
Now in New York, someone
a nice
penthouse with a greenhouse might
serve some great margaritas and blue
corn-chip tortillas with guacamole, and
ject of perception would be the same,
but the experience different.
Omni: Were you thinking of the crater's
contextwhen you decided to become
a cowboy?
Turrell:Please, I'm not a cowboy, I'm a
rancher! There are different job descrip-
tions here. To begin with, the beauty of
the place attracted me, so noticed I
some diminution of it because of some
overgrazing. The land around the
from stars crater, its setting and context, is impor-
select- tant. So not dealing with the landscape
is terribly arrogant. By practicing holis-
tic range management, we plan to
bring back 155 square miles of grass-
encounter land. This area has been traditionally
ranched since the 1860s if didn't I
graze it someone else would. When we
first applied for grazing rights they
were denied because we weren't
ranchers, so we had to become ranch-
ers. To take ranching into the twenty-
first century, you have to respond to
environmental issues. It's been an inter-
esting process, learning about the rela-
tionship of grasses to grazing animals.
Omni: How will visitors get out here?
Turrell: We'lldo eight to ten lours a day.
I'll have a take people out.
staff to
There will be a ramp for the handi-
capped; there aren't too many volcanic
craters where you can go all the way to
the top in a wheelchair There'll be as
many events dunng
the day, so people can stay overnight.
the night as during
Beds will be canted toward openings,
so visitors will be awakened by an
image of the sun overhead.
Omni: How will the celestial events
change over time?
Turrell; can go to the planetarium,
I
model the crater's spaces with card-
board, and actually see what's going to
happen in the future. The continent is
moving about an inch a year to the
north. Celestial events are made to be
seen over the next 26,000-year cycle of
Polaris; the events will be seen in the
where they are now, but on the oppo-
siteside of the space. After that they'll
begin to go out of the spaces. In the
year 25,800 what you see will be lo-
cated where was in 1900, while in the
it
eroding. In some way this is the mak-
ing of a pre-ruin.
Omni: What will you do when you finish
Roden Crater?
Turrell:have other outdoor projects in
I
in mind. The next want to do is on Mars,
I
You have to have goals! You don't
know you're getting there you don't
if if
have goals !00

CHROMO
was what actors called actor-proof. It
had been like shooting fish in a barrel.
Hardly any resistance. They could have
sent Bo-Bo the chimp and tie would
have garnered every ribbon and medal
given to Johnson. That hogwash about
rescuing his men from an encirclement.
A leader took care of his men, that was
that That appointment should have
been mine, Slater often whispered
through gritted teeth.
For Frank Slater, the killing had be-
come pleasurable early on. Dumb shit
Brad Johnson with his professional
scruples He'd have let that diseased
kid get away that day, Ten-year-old kid, his
eyes already a deep red with CHROMO.
his movements erratic. The little twerp
would've infected half the damned
Sprawl. One shot brought him down.
Littleguy. He remembered Johnson's
look.Made Slater happy for a week.
Taking Brad Johnson's place would
be only logical. Should have come
sooner, but what the hell. Com-
. . . key Her world was m that multiscreen
manding the Squads was what Slater
was born for. And hey it was for the
public weal, wasn't it? He was the bul-
wark between CHROMO and the gut-
less populace hiding up in the great
citadel, in their mile-high condos, away
from the Sprawl. Away from the poverty
the stink, the CHROMO
the action.
He was a hunter by disposition, by
nature. Though hunting CHROfvIO vec-
tors was not entirely satisfying; they
had no means with which to fight back,
not much defense. Oh, occasionally an
armed ragtag inflicted a casualty or
two among his men, or the rare armed
rebel appearing out of nowhere, wild-
eyed, making a suicide attack.
These skirmishes kept the politicos
generous and on their toes. Funding was
never a worry; the fat asses gave him
more than he asked. Invitations to their
fancy homes, too. The menfolk uneasy
with him. the women fascinated. He
found the women disgustingly easy and
eventually of no interest to him at all.
Slater looked forward to no more than
the hunt, may it last forever. That, and
the final showdown with Brad Johnson.
Big fucking hero Johnson, has-been
drunk, his eyeballs rolling with opti-
cube use. Christ, how he hated that
son of a bitch! Killing his brother had
been most satisfying. Now Frank Slater
looked fonward to killing Brad Johnson.
Slowly would be good.
Killing Lightstone the Lightslone
would then be the capstone of his ca-
reer.He was bound to be persona most
grata and in the highest circles. Mael-
strom himself der alte-el supremo
would place the circle of blue ribbon
around his neck. On national vid. The
Sonia leaned closer again, to the
screens. Her concentration, Raymond
marveled, was total. It really was time
nation's highest award. Nothing closed they were going.
to him, nothing held back. Oh, the swells The greater scheme, the enormous
would still regard him with what they enterprise, would be beyond her. The
thought was condescension. But was it project did not lend itself to easy de-
weak, like the light wave from an ex- scription, and besides, she would never
hausted weapon, its power source understand or condone Raymond's
used up. was he. Slater, who held the
It sacnflces in the cause of the greatest
high ground, from which he regarded industrial ... was no use, he though,
It
them all. Only Maelstrom loomed looking at his wife's intent face. He
above, and that aerie Slater granted to would never tell her either, of the sacri-
him readily gladly fices he had made in the name of the
Maelstrom after all, was Maelstrom. enterprise, would go on making as it
matured into reality What was Jeremy
Sonia Masters leaned closer to one of Bentham said
"greatest good
it
for the
the screens. Her lithe body twisted greatest number?" Bentham would
slightly as she strove to force a result have understood. Sonia never would.
with body English, Raymond Masters And CHROMO was the key Sonia
watched her while he pretended to searched for the key to CHROMO, not
read his news printout of the day He knowing the disease was itself the
needn't bother to pretend, he knew. main element in the great enterprise.
She was so absorbed she would not Without it, there was no enterprise, no
have noticed him dancing a hornpipe. Maelstrom, in fact. The entire structure
It would be impossible, he knew, to would collapse without its basic under-
make her understand the proiect. She pinning. That was the great secret.
only saw her own efforts at finding the Masters marveled at the paradox:
CHROMO needed us and. m its strug-
workstation, staring at the damned gle for primacy killed us. And we, for
'
CHROMO configuration. He watched our own purposes, needed the dead-
her edge the substructure closer to the liest plague we had ever known.
CHROMO grape cluster. CHROMO shied CHROMO IDO
away as it always did; coy. quivering
with seeming Raymond's
vulnerability
lips formed a sneer CHROMO was about
as vulnerable as laminated rocket skin.
His sneer turned into a genuine smile
as he saw CHROMO gather itself, cer-
tain now of its foe's essential weakness.
It straightened. The quivering stopped,
Like a faking fighter, it came off the
ropes, suddenly not tired or weak.
Adapted. Quickly easily
Sonia shook her head, her lustrous
hair spilling about her shoulders, then
bent to the task again. Masters checked
the time. Soon he would be speaking
at the shareholders' meeting. Mael-
strom had insisted that he. Masters,
speak first. The first words on the road
to Project Habitat. Raymond felt the
beads of sweat on his upper lip. He
patted It gently with a fresh, stiff linen
handkerchief.
It would be a dead end, this sub-
structure. Promising, then nothing.
CHROMO was too good. Too adaptive.
He remembered reading about the old
ebola strain, late twentieth century The
victims took It to the grave. Outbreaks
were sporadic and limited. CHROMO,
on the other hand, weakened and
maddened its victims, but they sur-
vived far longer. The vector, an incuba-
tor of swarming, multiplying billions of
bacteria, staggered on to infect others,
CHROMO was smart.
 BATTELLE be downloaded and translated manu-
ally into controls for machines on the
factory floor. As more sensors and
DnnnjiPORiunn feedback loops are introduced on the
and data communjcation with data pro- assembly line, these 'smart systems'
cessing, be on the road and access
I'll could come to control manufacturing
iTiy computer back at the office, ac- from design input to product output,"
cess all databases of the Internet or Omni Interviewer Bennett Daviss
any online service, receive and trans- takes the process another step "It
mit data, and process on the spot."
it would be great if you could walk into
Snediker adds: "Instead of a central an auto showroom, step into something
processor, cars may have 20 comput- like a virtual-reality booth, and custom
ers on board little guys, all networked design your own car," You wouldn't yet
together That's done by micromachines," choose your own technical specifica-
"Miniaturization will play a key role in tions or alloys, but you might have a
developing intelligent transportation choice of chassis, two or three en-
systems," says Millett. "In 10 years, we gines, and almost unlimited choices of
won't have self-driving cars, but we'll accessories. Your car would be deliv-
Slore your issues of OMNI in our new Cualom pack much more communi-
functional ered in three weeks!"
Bound Libraiy Cases made of black simulaled
leaihet embosseO with a gold Omni logo or the cations into Ihem^on-board naviga- But what about the human body?
spine. It's built lo last, and it will keep 12 issues tion, mapping, traffic and weather Battelle chose anliaging technologies
in mini condition indefinitely. Each case tias a tow truck with
reports, calling police or as the seventh on the list. According to
gold transfer (or recording the dale Send your
ctieok or money order (S10.45 eacti, 3 for information about where the car is." Hassler, "With proper self-care a typical
$29,45, 6 for $54 95) postpaid USAorders only. Snediker squints his eyes and mea- human can live to about 120, based on
Foreign orders add additional $2. DO (or postage sures with his fingers, "At Battelle, the number of errors that gradually
and tiandling per case.
we've built a wee little heat pump the creep into our D(MA replications until
TO: OMNI Magailne
Jesse Jones Industries size of a dime. By itself, that's just an we have a critical failure somewhere in
499 PA 19134
E. Erie Ave., Philadelphia, exercise in miniaturization. But think of the system. The more frivolous at-
CREDIT CARD HOLDERS covering a wall with them. Suddenly, tempts to combat aging have gotten
(orders over $15]
CALL TOLL-FREE: 1-800-825-6690, you can have a wall that's hot on one the most attention because they affect
side and cool on the other. That takes outward appearance. But antiaging
you away from central heating and technologies are moving in much more
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED cooling. Miniaturizing creates enor- significant directions."
mous opportunities fo put things pre- Dr Joyce Durnford, microbiologist,
cisely where they're needed, joins the discussion' "Relin-A for wrin-

OMNI EMPORIUM "Within five years," he expounds. kles and alpha hydroxy acids to en-

NOW OFFERS COLOR "forerunners of nanotechnology will in-

volve medical devices things put un-
courage hair growth are among the few
appearance- related things that work to
DISPLAY ADS. obtrusively Into your body to do some- some degree. True antiaging technolo-
thing without hooking you up to a ma-
CALL FOR DETAILS.
chine something going via a needle tip
gies address illnesses and deteriora-
tion that come with aging, like heart
516-757-9562 into a vein or a tiny implant sampling attacks and arthritis We expect to see
your blood or measuring pH and wire- dramatic advances made against
lessly transmitting the results. Baby chronic diseases, particularly as we
boomers are reaching an age where develop immunotherapies to tweak the
their parts are starling lo wear out," body into helping itself.

The integration of power, sensors, "We think a runaway inflammatory

and controls is the sixth influential tech- response promotes some heart attacks
nology on the list. Snediker explains and some arthritis," Durnford contin-
why, "Our ability to model atoms and ues, "Pharmaceutical houses are de-
molecules has been paced with our veloping drugs to control the early
ability to model systems. Better under- stages of these responses,"

. WORLDWIDE standing systems enables us to de-

velop increasingly sophisticated
"Cells at an infection or injury site
produce on their surfaces cell-adhesion
^ CORRESPONDENCE
sensors that sharpen our control over molecules (CAMs) that signal blood
fjiradihip &iiiort- Smce t9S0 systems. The more precise control, the cells to stop what they're doing and at-
o,.- l-SOO-677-3170 less energy a system consumes. In the tack the problem. We're targeting vari-
near future, automobiles and other ma- ous structurally identical substances
SCANNA INTERNATIONAL chines will be very carefully and ele- that could do the same job and be pro-
gantly controlled, Honda recently duced synthetically, says Durnford, In
unveiled an engine that reputedly conditions provoked by a runaway im-
GORGEOUS

H
meets California's 1997 clean-air re- mune response, a CAM might stop an
ASIAN WOMEN quirements, A central feature of the en- early step in the condition's develop-
gine an extremely tight electronic
is ment. Some CAM therapies should be
function-management system," in common use in 10 years."
Millett offers another example "In In this context, "antiaging" means
many factories engineers do computer- things that extend productive life, "En-
based product design that then must tire classes of tissue replacements are
being developed," says Durnlord,
"Synthetic skin and collagen could be
used for replacement in several ways.
Polymers affiliated with particular
human growtfi factors will
at an implant site, stimulating
body's tissue to adtiere to ttie implant
quicker and better"
"Medical science has provided lots
of spare parts for people,"
"but so far they tend to come from the
'juni^yard,' More of these parts will re-
over to compressed natural gas ment. People can make decisions, see
(CNG), electricity, or some other fuel by consequences immediately, then see
sensing pressure changes on the ac- how other decisions alter those conse-
celerator pedal. quences. When people can do that,
be injected "Fuel is political as hell," posits they gain insight into what works and
Itie Snediker. "From a technical standpoint, what doesn't. Ten years from now, sim-
everything is in place to do something ulation games could replace TV shows
If the entire Mid-
significantly different. as a major form of entertainment."
dle East was suddenly cut off, we Once all 10 of these technologies
adds Millett, could burn natural gas, alcohol, coal, have been accomplished, what tech-
or manure, "We have an expectation nologies will exist on this list in 2006?
everyone has an inalienable right to Millett muses. "Information storage and

quire tailored materials, sophisticated
miniaturized control circuits, a lot of
embedded computer capability. This
molecular design and miniaturization
technology is lying around in our labs
and in many products, but instead of
being inmy coffee pot, 10 years from
now it might bein my neighbor."
From bioreplacements the discus-
sion moves to number eight on the list:
precisely targeted medical treatments.
Durnlord *irst compares this to a more
commonly unoerstood process of radi-
own a car. Everyone assumes those retrieval should make the top 10 in
cars will be fueled by stored energy 2006. Somewhere on that list will be
carried on board as a liquid and dis- high-quality products custom-designed
tributed nationally To create economic and affordably manufactured to an in-
pressure powertul enough to change dividual's explicit orders clothes, ap-
the social expectations would take either pliances, luggage, all manner of
a national emergency or very gradual, things. Quite possibly hydrogen energy
long-term shift. Right now, there's no will be releasing the huge amount of
social or environmental pull on new fuel energy locked in water Management of
technologies. No market pull." water resources will make the top 10,
Millettpredicts that it will be at least driven by demand for resources in the
50 years before the U.S. national vehi- oceans: growing crops, extracting min-
cle fleet runs predominantly on fuels erals, and so forth,

ation treatment. "Techniques of attach- that are not derived from petroleum. In "Many believe we're on the verge of
ing radiation to antibodies to identify 20 years, however, Snediker believes new wohdwide epidemics," Millett con-
tumors is well eslablished in treating
several types of metastatic cancers
you isolate and synthesize an antibody
It
A few years ago, scientists at
specific to colon cancer tissue, and
bind a radioactive molecule to it, you Oliio State used deep-fry oil in place of
can give the antibody intravenously
and it will travel throughout the body
and attach itself to the tumor. Putting
diesel fuel and it worked. The
m an imaging camera, basi-
the patient
cally aGeiger counter, you see where bus exhaust smelled like McDonald's,
the malignant tissue is. Now, a new
hand-held device lets the surgeon that 'city freeways will probably permit tinues. "Identifying, preventing, and re-

scan for radioactivityduring surgery to no vehicles weighing more than 1,500 sponding to them might well be on the
Oe sure all malignancy is gone. Using pounds. These cars will have little ce- list in2006. Technological responses to
the antibody to carry a drug, instead of ramic engines with exquisite controls the demand for personal safety of other

radioactivity, is promising, but although
antibodies deliver the drug to the tumor
surface, they usually fail to penetrate
inside. People are working on that."
"Youcan broaden the idea of
geted therapy," Durnford theorizes.
that get extremely high gas mileage
and won't be able to go faster than
60 miles an hour You'll own a little car
and rent the behemoth to take you over
tar- highways on long trips. Two of my
neighbors do that now."
kinds will be there, too. Several states
have legislation pending allowing peo-
ple to carry concealed weapons. De-
mand for personal sensors to detect
harmful objects like guns in our vicinity
will rise. A jogger might carry a little

Hormones, growth factors, a variety of Finally, the tenth technology Is edu- sensor alerting him or her when an-
proteins have specific docking sites on tainment, which may be construed as other person comes within 10 feet.
specific cells. Any one of them could be an application of technology rather Home and car security systems could
used to deliver a drug to a specific organ than a technology As Millett ex-
in itself. be improved by better sensors, more
that needs We can expand targeted
it. plains, "Learning from books is me- accurate information, and immediate
therapeutics to putting drugs not only dieval. It's just not the most efficient communication with police or emer-
where but also when they're needed." way people
for to learn. Vision is the gency units. Consumer demand for

The discussion turns to the ninth most powerful sense for most people, foods high m nutrition and fiber, low in
technology hybrid fuel systems for ve- so information certainly will become fat, and all natural, will be strong. Work
hicles. We
don't see a single-source more visual. Ultimately, it may become in plant genetics is progressing slower
solution to the vehicle fuel problem," three-dimensional. A major area of than some predicted, but shows
begins Millett. "A strategic technology development will be computerized sim- promise in engineering food."
at a systems level is a vehicle that can ulation. People can choose a situa- Bennett Daviss poses his final ques-
carry multiple fuels and switch back tionthe battle of Gettysburg, and the
tion to the scientist of the future
and torth among them under control of corporate management, their mar- leader of this esteemed group: "Which
a smart system. An internal combus- riageand test their ideas, see what technologies surprised you by not
tion engine, a bit bigger than a lawn- happens, and rerun scenarios to see making this year's list?"
mower engine that gets 80 miles per how different strategies affect the out- Milletfs response: "A cure for the
gallon, accelerates the vehicle. Then at come. Business is already involved in common cold didn't even come up in

a preset cruising speed, it switches simulation as a tool to develop judg- conversation. "DO
BAfVieS
2x2x2:
A pair of square, wooden puzzles goes plastic

By Scot Morris

The best mechanical puz- off eilher adjacent piece, but

zles appear simple but turn not both at the same time.
out to be disarmingiy diffi- In the upper right corner of the
cult, until yoLi know the secret, opposite page (under the
it's rare for a new secret olastic Stark Raving Cubes
lo comealong that Is so sim- ouzzie) is a sample cut
ple it could have been from wood. On this page, at
discovered centuries ago but left, is a plastic version
wasn't, but it has happened that demonstrates one of the
recently with two new ideas puzzle's mosl interesting
Invented by woodwork ng properties: Held by one piece,
hobbyists, they've earned the others disengage by
the ultimate commerc al about half their widths, but
accolade: They are now ava I the assembly stays whole.
able in plastic. The top piece is completely

Bill Cutler of Palatne ill free from ttie bottom.

nois, built puzzles with Once you know the geo-
blocks ol varying sizes that metric secret, you can
had to be inserted in a separate the pieces in a cou-
certain order to fill a box ex ple of seconds. You'd
actiy. His father-in-law nave no difficulty putting
found the box-filling puzzles two or three of them to-
too even to try,
difficult gether again, but the fourth
so Cutler wanted to make just won't fit

him a joke gift: a puzzle Jerry Slocom, puzzle his-

thai would appear absurdly torian and owner of the
simple but would turn out world's largest puzzle col-
to be extremely difficult. The lection, called Walker's
simplest configuration idea "elegant, ingenious, and
was fourcubes that appeared diabolical. When you look
identical but, once removed
Two wooden puzzles, Bill Cutler's Blackhead in oak. on the nails
al you think is too simple:
it, it

from the box, would turn out

above and Ken Walker's jigsaw puzzle, became so when you try you would it,

not to be perfect cubes at popular that they're available in plastic (plastic pgsaw shown above). swear it's impossible. Yet it
all and to be maddeningly does come apart. It's a
difficult lo gel back in, the Blockhead puzzle both assembled and disas- brand-new idea, a brilliant
1 tried designing varied "one of the best mechanical sembled on the opposite puzzle that will become
pieces with ail sorts of puzzles to come along page (upper right). Mar- a classic,"
concealed angles, but it You can easily fit
this century." keted by Wit's End of San Walker went so far as lo
would be a woodworker's three pieces back into the Jose, California, it's called apply for a patent, because
nightmare," Cutler told me. box, but the fourth just won't Stark Raving Cubes and he saw his new way of engag-
"Late one night, the final go. How many wrong sells for about $12. ing and disengaging parts
isign c e ton ways are there to put four In 1992 Ken Walker of making possible new kinds
all four pieces could be blocks in a box? You'd Livermore, California, of fasteners for clothes,
exactly alike!" be surprised. came up with an unusual way handbags, and other items.
Cutler calls the final fiend- Cutler's wood originals of cutting jigsaw pieces Deeming Walker's idea
ish construction Blockhead, sold at $40 apiece, a out of wood. Setting the plat- new and useful, the U,S
and it's shown
oak above
in price that made them attrac- form of his scroll saw a Patent Office gave him
(spiked on the nails) and tive only to serious collec- couple of degrees off hori- Patent Number 5,409,227
on the opposite page in one tors. Now, due in part to those zontal, he found that by last April,
of the many incorrect con- collectors' rave reviews, varying the tilt of the cut he Wood puzzles individually
figurations thai prevent the the Blockhead puzzle has could produce a four- cut are expensive, but the
four pieces from fitting in been pressed into a multi- piece puzzle in which each plastic version now available,
the box. Martin Gardner called colored plastic version, shown piece can slide completely marketed by Binary Arts,

11B omn;
sells in toy stores for about only one other English so that
E5.95, word by shifting their letters. there can
What are the "other be no dis-
PUZZLE POTPOURRI words" for each of the three? pute over
The Itnkage puzzle, left 7. saw an unusual pair
1 possible ^ ...
unanswered in the fall sunglasses that had the
of imbalances.
^^C
'"^7
issue, has a simple solution: regular large lenses and What was
The pencil will irace the a second set of small lenses, lulack's
^
shape ot an infinity sign, the embedded m the frame, solution?
logo of Omn/ magazine. for close-up viewing. They 12. Paddling
Here are some more puzzles were in a specialty sport- his canoe in
to stretch your brain cells. ing-goods store, What i<.ind a river, Hans

1 Name two parts of the body
that, to change from the
singular to the plural, require
changing all the vowels,
2,Name two common English
words that are spelled one
way when applied to females
and another way when ap-
plied to males.
3, Usually adding the
"s" to the end of a word
changes the number of the
of store was it? uncori^s cham-
8, Me\ Stover tells me he pagne and _
knows of a specialized throws the cork
set of glasses for people into the river, He rows
whose occupation re- upstream 10 minutes and around a cylinder. The
quires them to see far. at arm's then has a crisis of shape a compass draws will
length, and close up. conscience. Realizing he be an oval,
Who are these specialized shouldn't litter, he in- 1 1 The three agree before
irilocals for? stantly paddles downstream counting the coins that
tetter 9, 1have heard of another set in search of the cork. He they will split them evenly
of custom glasses bifo- picks it up exactly one mile down to the remainder.
cals with the separations ver- from the place where If there is no remainder, all is

word (that is, singular to tical rather than horizontal, he dropped it. How fast is well. If there is one coin

plural) but not the gender of so that the wearer might have the current? remaining, Manny gets it. If
the word. DavelOOOO- far vision to the left and there are tvrt) coins remain-
aol.com asks. "What word is near vision to the right, tor ANSWERS ing, Moe and Mack each get
itthat, when the single example. Who might 1 Foot/feel and tooth/teeth. one. In this way, each
letter 's' is added to the end. want such specialty glasses? 2. "Blondes" and "bru- thief has exactly one- third
changes both its number 10. How can you draw a nettes" are always female: chance of getting an
and gender?" perfect oval with one turn of males with such hair col- extra coin from the "remain-
4. These words have one a compass? or are "blond" and "brunet." ders," In other words, in

very unusual property n. Three 3. Princes/princess, Note all cases m which there is a
in common: polish, nice, thieves the odd change in number, dispute, 50 percent of
job, herb, tangier. ravel. Manny. Moe. from plural to singular. the time Manny will get one
What is it? and iviack^ 4. All the words change their extra and the other 50
5,The words in question s;eala number pronunciations when percent of the time Moe and
were the only English ot identical capitalized, Mack will eachget one extra,
words l<new with
I gold coins and 5. The word is "rainier" {lor ex- 12, Three miles per hour. In
thisstrange start to divide them ample, it's rainier today the closed system of the
property until . It occurs to than yesterday). Capitalized, flowing stream, the distance
Idiscovered lyianny that it it becomes Rainierthe between cork and
another will be unfair mountain, ale, or phnceof boat doesn't depend on the
while drinlt- if the coins Monaco. stream's current. Hans
ing beer at a cannot be 6. Banalities, scythe, piecrust, has been separated from
bar in Seattle, What divided 7. A fishing store. Anglers the cork for 20 minutes,
is it? evenly by need to shift their gaze from and in that time, the cork
6. Insatiable chesty three. Ivlack far to near, for tying flies, has gone one mile. It

pictures:These comes up with a baiting hooks, and so on, will drift three miles in an
three words can solution to divide the 8. A concert musician. hour, so the speed of
each be trans- coins fairly, before 9. A portrait painter. the current is three miles
posed into one and counting them, and 10. First wrap the paper per hour.OO
119 OMNI
 LAST lAJORD
SCIENTIFIC OUTLAWS:
Seeing the laws of physics in relative terms

By Christopher Keliey

never too late to learn. Then than you, you'll have to learn to taking me to the hospital she told
It's
again, it's never too early ei- eat your meals through a straw my father what had happened,
ther, Tai<e physics for exam- for ttie next two weeks. and the second law of thermody-
ple. I always thought Newton Newton's incomplete version namics kicked in.

was just some guy who made of his "laws of motion" can be ex- Law two states "a sponta-
great fig cookies. was aston- I plained by the "law of probabil- neous tendency of energy to-
ished to learn that he had also ity," a complex statistical ward the highest degree of
discovered a complex system of equation which suggests Newton randomness." Paulie, not willing
laws that govern the universe. "probably" had no older siblings. to donate any body parts to scl-
Knowing these laws as a kid, I

could have gotten much better Einstein, in all was the youngest
likelihood,
grades in science class. also I

As a child, he would have

could have pointed out to my
older brother, Paulie, how
unscientifically he behaved,
Newton's first law states, "An
object at rest or in a slate of uni-
form motion," such as my nap-
ping brother Paulie, "tends to
remain in that state," unless his
little brother is bored and stupid
enough to try out law number two,
in his family.
learned the harsh reality of teasing gone bad.
totally
This would account for such a ence, did everything he could to
gross mathematical error in New- avoid my dad. He ricocheted off
ton's theory
little siblings just walls, furniture, and appliances.
don't pack the same punch as By the time my dad finally caught
bigger siblings after being rudely Paulie, everything was pretty ran-
awakened, ("the law of diminish- dom. Debris was everywhere,
ing returns"). andthe house was a shambles.
Another set of laws I wish I Once learned these laws of
I

Law two says. "When an object had known of earlier were the physics, they seemed almost too
is accelerated by force," such as first two laws of thermodynamics. obvious. But if it weren't for great
being woken up by a punch in The first law states that "energy thinkers like Newton and Ein-
the arm, "the amount of acceler- can be neither created nor de- stein, who originally identified
ation is equal to the force divided stroyed but only changed." If I phenomena and codified them
by the mass of the object." had known that, wouldn't have I into succinct, understandable,
However, it was always law been so worried when Paulie scientific rules, I would still be liv-

number three that gave me the smashed the energy forming my ing in ignorance.
most trouble. Law three says, nose. He changed into some- it It was rumored that after Ein-
Learning Uie "For every action there is an thing resembling a flattened stein became famous for his the-
Theory of equal and opposite reaction," By strawberry Since flattened straw- ories he decided to cash in on
Relativity and sneaking up and hitting Paulie in bernes are rather tough to breath his growing popularity and, like
Newton's the arm, would not produce an
I through, mistakenly thought my
I Newton, start his own cookie
laws at ayoung equal and opposite reaction but nose was destroyed. immedi- I business. It's said that he cre-
age may a reaction 30 times as violent as ately sought the medical atten- ated a fortune cookie modeled
prevent broken the punch I delivered. At first, I tion of my mother by rolling after Newton's fig variety. En-
noses and thought this was unfair. But later, around on the floor and moaning closed in the gooey middle of
bruised arms. as Ilearned more about sci- loudly My mother, who wasn't each cookie was a little piece
ence, found out that this
I familiar with the first law of paper, and written on it
phenomenon was ex-| of thermodynamics ei- was a science fact like E =
J plained by ther, didn't realize that mc^. Needless to say, Fig
'"Theory of Relativity," the energy that was once Einsteins failed. DO
'
which says you punch a if
'
my nose was still alive and
relative, especially i albeit, unrecog- Please visit our web site at
older and bigger izable. After hittp://www.oninlmasxni.